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REPORT OF DK. FITCH 



ON THE 



NOXIOUS km OTHER INSECTS, 

DETRIMENTAL TO A6EICULTURE, 



ALSO 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



NEW YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
BRARY OF CONGRESS. ^ '' ^ 



[SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT 1 ^^ 

$ 



ITED STATES OF AMERICA, f 

ALBANY: 

C- WENDELL, LEGISLATIVE PRINTEB, 
1865. 



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^11 



REPORT OF DR. FITCIl 

ON THE 

NOXIOUS AND OTHER INSECTS 

Detrimental to Agriculture. 



AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE NEW YORK STATE 
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



INSECTS INFESTING GARDENS. 

9. Northern Tobacco-worm, Potato-worm, Tomato-worm, Sphinx quinquemac- 
ulata, Haworth. (Lepidoptera. Sphingidae.) Plate 4, tig. 1. 

Eating the leaves of potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco, in July and August, a large green 
worm, the size of one's finger, with a black horn at the end of its back and along each side a 
row of seven white or pale yellow marks resembling the letter <^ with its pointed end forward; 
lying under ground in its pupa state during the winter and spring, and producing a large gray 
moth, four and a half inches wide across its extended wings, having a row of five yellow spots 
along each side of its body and two narrow black zigzag bands across the middle of its hind 
wings. 

Hon. William Kelly, in a letter enclosing to me one of the millers 
which had been obtained from the tobacco-worm by Charles L. Roberts, 
Esq., of Tariffville, Ct., well remarks' that the culture of tobacco has 
become so important an interest now at the North, that any information in 
regard to its insect enemies will be read with interest. Mr. Roberts 
alludes to this tobacco-worm as being quite prevalent in his vicinity. 
And the pains which some other correspondents and friends engaged in 
the culture of tobacco have taken to transmit specimens of the worm or 
the miller to me is an evidence of the importance they attach to this insect. 
And it may well be regarded as an important enemy; for this tobacco-worm 
makes the growing of tobacco twice as laborious a task as it would be if 
we had no such insect in our country. 

This is currently supposed to be a new insect here at the North, unlike 
anything which we previously had, and that its presence here is due to 
the extensive growing of tobacco which has recently been commenced. 
It, however, is the same worm which, from time immemorial, we have 
been accustomed to meet with in midsummer upon our potato vines, and 
1 



TOBACCO-WORM. ITS HABITS. THE PUPA. DEPTH OF ITS INTERMENT. 

the plants in the greatest numbers. They move about but little during' the 
daytime, and being of the same green color as the stalks and leaves, they 
are difficult to discover. Usually, the presence of one of these v7orms upon 
our tomatoes is first indicated to us by the large black pellets of excrement 
which it drops, some of which frequently lodge in the forks of the stalks or 
adhere to the glutinous hairs of the plant. These pellets are of a short 
cylindrical form, and deeply grooved lengthwise; and the worm, as if to 
guard against its presence being betrayed hereby, when it is crawling 
along the stalks, if it chances to come to one of these pellets, it pauses and 
takes it up in its jaws and drops it to the ground. 

When the M'orm is grown to its full size it leaves the plant on which it 
has hitherto been living, sometimes wandering away to a distance from it, 
and roots down into the ground to the depth of some inches below the 
surface. It here becomes quiescent, and casting off its larva skin it 
appears in its pupa or chrysalis form. By this change it is diminished a 
third in its size and is now of an oval form, four times as long as thick, 
and covered with a hard crustaceous shell of a glossy bright chestnut color. 
This pupa of the tobacco-worm is particularly curious from having its for- 
ward end prolonged on one side into a long slender limb which is bent 
backwards, reaching the middle of the body, where its end touches and 
is firmly soldered to the surface, thus forming a kind of loop resembling 
the handle to a pitcher — this being the sheath in which the tongue is 
enclosed, which in the perfect insect becomes developed to such a remark- 
able length. In this state the insect remains through the winter and 
spring. It is currently stated that it lies so deep in the ground as to be 
beyond the reach of the winter's frost, but this point requires further inves- 
tigation, for frequently in harvesting potatoes this chrysalis is disinterred, 
lying only a few inches below the surface. Every laborer who has been 
much employed in digging potatoes, and every boy who has been assigned 
the task of picking them up, will recollect having noticed it, the curious 
loop or pitcher-like handle on one side having particularly drawn his 
attention to it. In the garden, also, where tomatoes have been grown, I 
have met with it only slightly underground. The subsoil, moreover, 
beneath where it is loosened by the plow, is in most situations so compact 
and hard that it would be a very arduous labor for the worm to penetrate 
downward in it twelve inches or more; and for the moth, after it comes out 
from the pupa shell, to force itself up such a distance through this compact 
subsoil, would seem to be quite impossible. We know, furthermore, that 
the pupa3 of the other lepidoptera, several of them equalling this in size, 
pass the winter, some in cocoons elevated above the ground, others 
upon the surface, others slightly under the surface, where they one and all 
become congealed by the winter's cold without impairing their vitality. I 
am therefore led to conclude that the repeated instances in which I have 
met with this pupa lying but a few inches within the loose surface soil 
were not abnormal, but that this is the depth to which it is commonly 
buried; and tliat previous accounts, which represent it as lying- deep in 
the ground, beyond the reach of the frost, are erroneous. When tho 



TOBACCO-WORU. MOTH DESCRIBED. ITS HEAD. ITS BODY. 

warmth of spring has penetrated the eartli sufficiently to quicken it again 
into life, its internal parts continue their growth and development, until 
the perfect insect becomes formed within the pupa shell. This shell then 
cracks open and the moth withdraws itself from it, crowds its way upward 
through the ground, and comes forth in its perfect form. 

We next proceed to describe this insect in its different states. 

The Moth or perfect insect (Plate 4, fig. 1, is densely coated over with 
hairs and scales, wholly hiding the surface of the body from view. Its 
dimensions vary in the two sexes — the body of the female being somewhat 
shorter and more thick than that of the male. The former usually mea- 
sures two inches in length, the latter a quarter of an inch more. Its width 
from tip to tip of the extended wings is much the same in both sexes — 
seldom varying but a trifle from four inches and a half. 

Tire Head is pale gray with a brown spot upon each side forward of the 
eye. The eyes are large and protuberant. The palpi are large and ap- 
pressed to the under side of the head, with their ends projecting forward 
and forming a bluntly-rounded apex to the head. The long spiral tongue 
is glossy, yellowish brown, with its basal portion black on each side. The 
antenna are almost half the length of the bodj', and somewhat shorter in the 
female than m the male. They are brown, and on the exterior side hoary 
gray. They are nearly straight, and of a thick clumsy appearance, increas- 
ing in thickness very slightly and gradually from the base almost to the 
tip, an<! then rapidly taper into a sharp point, which is curved backward. 
In the males they have along the two flattened faces of their inner side a 
fine fringe of short hairs placed at the ead of each joint. 

The Thorax is gray, and in front is crossed by two curved black lines 
meeting at their ends, forming the outline of a crescent having its convex 
«ide fbrwaixJ, And on each side of the middle are two black lines parallel 
with each ether through most of their length, extending backward and out- 
ward along the edges of the shoulder cover. The hind part of the thorax 
is brown, v/ith a large black spot upon each side — each of these black 
spots having on its fore side a roundish blue gray spot, which is edged an- 
teriorly with a transverse line of white or sky-blue hairs. The sides are 
pale ;gray, with a brown streak extending from the eye backward to the 
*inder side of the wing socket. 

The A.BBOMEK has the form of a cone nearly three times as long as thick. 
In the males it is composed of seven riugs-^the last ones becoming giad 
«ally shorter, and ending in two compressed tufts of hair, which are of a 
broad elliptical form, and tapering to a point at their ends. In the females 
the abdomen is plainly shorter and thicker, composed of but six rings — the 
iast one larger than that which precedes it, and ending in a crown of hairs 
forming a short cylindrical brush. On the back it is of a gray color, with 
a slender black stripe along the middle, a white band at the base, and a row 
of white spots along each side placed in the sutures — the opposite spots 
being in .some instances prolonged into each other, and thus forming a white 
band upon each suture. Upon the sides the ground color is coal black — 
this color being notched into at the sutures by the above mentioned row of 



TOBACCO-WORM. THE MOTH. ITS LEGS. PRELIMINARY REMARKS Olf THE WINGS. 

white spots along its upper side, and more deeply along its lower side by 
a similar row of larger white spots; and on the middle of each of the five 
first rings is a large round spot of a bright ochre yellow color — the hind 
ones smaller. The under side is pale gray, with a row of round black 
spots along the middle, from three to five in number — the second one being 
the largest. 

The Legs are gray, paler on their undersides, the feet becoming brown 
towards their tips, with white rings on the joints. The middle and hind 
shanks have a pair of spurs at their tips on the underside, and the hind ones 
have a second pair placed a short distance above the first. These spurs 
are gray, with naked brown shining thorn-like tips, one spur of each pair 
being longer than its mate. The feet are five-jointed, the first joint being 
much the longest, and the following ones successively shorter, with a pair 
of sharp hooks at the end. On their undersides are rows of small black or 
brown prickles, with a crown of larger ones at the apex of each joint, and 
along the hindside of the forward feet and shanks is a series of much larger 
ones. 

Preliminary to our description of the wings of this moth the reader should 
be apprised of some generalities respecting the markings of the wings in 
the insects of this order. In the immensely numerous group which in com- 
mon language we designate as millers or moths, and which are scientifi- 
cally termed the Crepuscular and Nocturnal Lepidoptera, an almost endle&s 
diversity in the spots and marks upon the fore wings is met with. Upon 
looking them over, one after another, no one will suspect there is any sys- 
tem, any uniformity, to these spots and marks, except it may be here and 
there among the individuals of a particular genus or tribe. And yet, when 
we come to inspect them more particularly, we shall discover that the same 
general designs are repeated, the same pattern is copied, more or less com- 
pletely and distinctly, all through this vast series of objects, it being vari- 
ations only in the minor details of the figures, as to their particular form, 
size, colors and distinctness, that make up the wonderful diversity which 
exists. These markings, which are common to the wings of such numbers 
of these moths, are situated and designated as follows: First, between the 
centre of the wings and its outer margin we observe sometimes one but more 
commonly two small spots of a peculiar aspect. These are called the stigmas 
or stigmata, this name stigma having been anciently given to a mark burned 
with a hot iron upon the foreheads of slaves who had been convicted of 
theft or other crime. Second, extending across the middle of the wing and 
between the two stigmas is frequently a darker cloudiness, which has been 
termed the median shade. Finally, the wing is also crossed by three bands, 
bars or striga?, as they are diflferently termed by different writers; first, 
the anterior, extra-basal or sub-basal, which is placed immediately forward 
of the anterior stigma; second, the post-medial or elbowed band, immedi- 
ately back of the posterior stigma; and third, the sub-terminal, sub-apical 
or penultimate, which is usually more slender and distinct than either of 
the others and is parallel with and a short space forward of the hind mar- 
gin. In the moth wkich is now before us the spots and marks upon the 



TOBACCO-WORM. THE MOTH. ITS WINGS DESCRIBED. 

fore wings appear to liave been regarded by previous writers as being so 
confused and obscure that they have attempted to give no full description 
of them. Yet we here find the same series of bands extending across the 
wings as are mentioned above, though portions of some of them are so 
modified, so faint and irregular, that they can be satisfactorily made out 
only in specimens which are most perfect, and by an eye that is well exer- 
cised in tracing the very obscure marks which so frequently occur upon 
the wings of this order of insects. 

The Wings are long and narrow, the hind ones twice and the forward 
ones nearly thrice as long as broad. They are traversed by strong longi- 
tudinal veins, of which there are eight in number ending in the hind mar- 
gin of each wing and running nearly parallel and equidistant from each 
other. The upper wings are gray with a large faint brown cloud occupy- 
ing the disk and apex. Two bands, each formed of three parallel brown 
or blackish lines extend across these wings, very irregularly, the one 
before, the other behind the middle. The anterior band we describe as 
follows. On the inner margin towards the base are three parallel lines 
usually very distinct, running obliquely backward and outward half way 
across the wing to the anterior end of the brown cloud, each line being 
turned abruptly forward and forming an acute angular point upim the 
seventh one of the eight longitudinal veins. Beyond this, these lines 
become very obscurely traced, only one or two of them being dimly per- 
ceptible, extending along the outer side of the anterior end of the brown 
cloud, till they nearly reach tlie small stigma spot, where they ao-ain turn 
obliquely forward and outward, here becoming more distinct for a short 
distance on the inner side of the first vein, across which they are continued 
in three very oblique streaks to the outer margin,the anterior one ending about 
opposite to its commencement on the inner margin. The stigma is a very 
small egg-shaped spot, placed obliquely, with its smaller end towards the in- 
ner base of the wing, its centre gray and no paler than the ground color around 
it, it being in most instances marked only by the dusky ring around its margin. 
The three lines forming the post-medial band commence near the middle of 
the inner margin, the two anterior lines running backwards parallel with 
the inner margin, till they reach the inner vein of the wing, between which 
and the next vein they each form a mark shaped like an arrow-head at a 
considerable distance apart. They then pass upon the brown cloud which 
occupies the central portion of the wing, where they are widened into two 
broad, dusky streaks, which are cloud-like and obscure,, running obliquely 
and nearly parallel with the hind margin until they reach the fourth vein 
where they abruptly turn to a transverse direction and extend onward to 
the margin at right angles therewith, these lines being formed of conflu- 
ent arrow-headed spots, which are more distinct in the anterior line, particu- 
larly at its outer end. The third line of this band extends across the wing 
parallel with the second one, the space between them being grayish,, this 
color forming three or four pale cloud-like spots on the inner side of the 
middle of the wing occupying the angles formed by the arrow-heads com- 
posing this portion of the second line. Where this third line crosses the 



8 

TOBACCO-WORM. THE MOTH. ITS UNDER WINGS. 

inner vein it juts backward, forming a very acute angle, as it does also in 
a less degree in crossing most of the other veins Extending across the 
three lines of the post-medial band, in the space between the third and 
fourth veins, are two very slender black lines, which are united at their 
ends, forming a very narrow, elongated ellipsis, its anterior end very acute 
and reaching almost to the stigma. And parallel with this on its inner 
side, in the space between the fourth and fifth veins is a similar ellipsis, 
which is less than half the size of the outer one. These ellipses some- 
times appear merely as gray streaks, the black lines alang their edges 
being obsolete, that along the outer edge of the outer one being most 
prominent and near its forward end widened into a small oval spot. For- 
ward of the hind margin is a coal black line, the sub-terminal, the most dis- 
tinct and conspicuous of all the marks upon the wings. It is waved towards 
its inner end, conforming to corresponding but more slight curvatures of 
the third line of the post-medial band, with which line it is parallel through 
its whole length, a narrow brow)i space intervening between tliem. It is 
frequently deflected forward as it crosses the fourth vein, and it here ter- 
minates ill the hind end of the elongated ellipsis. Behind this line, extend- 
ing along the border of the wing near its extreme edge, is a white line, 
the space between it and the black Vme being clouded with bluish gray. 
Finally, upon the brown ground at the apex of the wing is an oblique coal 
black line, extending from tip forward and inward to the post-medial 
band, where it ends between the second and third veins. Its hinder por- 
tion is margined on the outer side by a pale streak, and where it crosses 
the second vein it curves forward and forms an acute angle. The fringe 
is short and brown, alternated with small gray spots placed half way 
between the ends of the veins. 

The under wings are blackish at their base, and have a broad, gray hind 
border, all their middle portion being dull white, and crossed by four black 
bands. The anterior band is curved, and is commonly united with the second 
band inside of the middle, and again at its inner end. The second and third 
bands are parallel or slight)}' recede from eacii other towards their outer 
ends, their inner ends being usually curved almost to a half circle, with the 
'Concave side facing forward, the second band being widened and often 
becoming double in the middle of its curvature. Through the remainder of 
their length these bands are zig-zag or composed of arrow heads united at 
their ends, which form acute points projecting backward upon each of the 
veins. The fourth band is broader than the others, but towards its inner 
end it tapers and gradually becomes slender, its outer end being curved 
forward. It is parallel with the hind margin, and forms a border to the 
gray color of the hind part of the wing. The fringe is short, and of a brown 
color alternated with white, and becoming wholly white at the inner angle. 

On their undersides their upper wings are dull brownish gray, more clear 
gray along the outer border, and are crossed in their middle by two ob- 
scure dusky bands, sometimes with a third band very dimly perceptible 
between them. These bands, as is particularly obvious in the hind one, are 



TOBACCO-WORM. THE -WORM DESCRIBED. 

formed of a series of curves on the spaces between the veins, with their 
ends turned backward and forming- angles upon the veins; and at the tips 
of these wings is a black oblique line, corresponding with that upon the 
upper side, but much more slender and simple. The hind wings are gray, 
with their hind border down, and are crossed by two blackish bands, which 
are repetitions of the two middle bands of the upper surface, but more dim, 
more slender, and running back upon the veins in longer and sharper points. 
The Larva grows to tiie thickness of one's little finger, and is somewhat 
over three inches in length or three and a half inches when it is crawling, 
it being then more elongated than when at rest. Its surface is destitute 
of hairs or bristles. It is divided into thirteen segments, those at each end 




Tobacco Worm. 

being shorter and less distinct. The surface of each segment of the body 
is crossed transversely by impressed lines and roundly elevated intervening 
spaces, giving them a ribbed appearance, there being eight of these eleva- 
ted ribs to each segment. In viewing tliis larva the eye first of all notices 
a formidable looking, stout, thorn-like hoi'n, placed at the hind end of the 
back, and projecting obliquely upward and backward, about as long as the 
segment which is next forward of it, slightly curved, and its surface rough 
from little projecting points. Low down upon each bide is a row of large 
oval dots, which are the spiracles or breathing pores. The head is small, 
horny and shining, of a flattened spherical form, and the mouth furnished 
with a pair of stout jaws. It has three pairs of small tapering feet placed 
anteriorly upon the breast, each having a sharp hook at its end, and four 
pairs of short, thick, fleshy pro-legs along the underside of the body, with 
two similar ones at the tip. 

The color of this worm is commonly bright green marked with white. 
Numerous faint whitish dots are usually perceptible, at least on the fore- 
part and underside of its body, and along each side are seven straight oblique 
stripes, the last one of which is prolonged more or less distinctly to the 
base of the curved horn. These stripes are usually margined along their 
upper sides by a faint dusky cloudiness; and meeting their lower ends is a 
longiuidinal stripe, placed low down upon each segment, and fi)rming with 
the oblique stripe, a V-shaped mark, having its point directed forward, with 
the breathing pore placed in the angle which is thus formed. The hind- 
most breathing pore also has a much shorter and more faint white stripe 



10 

TOBACCO-WOnM. VARIES GREATLY IN COLOR. THE PUPA DESCRIBED. 

on its upper and another on its lower side, the two stripes uniting together 
forward of it; and at the anterior end a faint white streak is commonly 
visible for a short distance forward of the lower end of the first oblique 
stripe. At the hind end of the body is a flattened triangular space which 
is margined with white upon each side. The head is green, sometimes 
with a vertical black streak upon each side. The anterior legs are dusky 
towards their tips, and on their inner sides are a few small black bristles. 
Tiie soles of the pro-legs are black, as is also the curved horn at the end of 
the back. 

This larva is liable to vavj in its colors to a surprising extent. Many 
persons from noticing in their gai'dens worms which are so totally dissimi- 
lar in their colors confidently suppose there are two or three different spe- 
cies of them infesting their tomatoes. And the same varieties occur upon 
the potato, and probably also upon tobacco. Its most common color is 
leek green. From this it varies to lighter yellowish green, and on the 
other hand to various shades of darker brownish and blackish green. In 
other instances the green color wholly vanishes, and the worm is pale or deep 
amber brown, blackish brown, purplish black or pure black. In these 
brown and black varieties the head sometimes retains its normal green 
color, but is usually the same color with the body. The dots upon the 
skin and the oblique stripes along the sides are very often light yellow 
instead of white; and where the ground color of the worm is dark brown 
or black, these markings are always yellow, or sometimes pale pink red. 
The breathing pores are black, but sometimes dark red or dull yellow, 
and are surrounded by a ring of white or pale blue, which is usually 
inclosed in a second ring which is sometimes brown, sometimes black. 
The curved tail-like horn, so far as my observation goes, is the only part 
which is constant in its color, this being always black. 

Tbe Pupa or chrysalis is of an oval form, its opposite sides nearly 
parallel through most of its length, and tapering at each end. It is four 

times as long as thick, its length being 
two to two and a lialf inches. It is of 
a chestnut brown color, paler in some 
places and blackish in otliers. The 
anterior end is irregularly narrowed and 
Tobacco-worm Pupa. ^^^ jjg ^jp^x is prolonged into a remarka- 

bly long cylindrical tongue-case the thickness of a coarse knitting-needle, 
which projects downward and is curved backward at a distance of nearly 
a fourth of an inch from the surface of the breast, becoming straight 
through the last half of its length and reaching half the length of the 
bod}'. It is thickened and bluntly rounded at its end, which slightly 
touches the surface of the body and is firmly soldered thereto. It is 
evenly ribbed transversely, app -aring as though the enclosed tongue were 
divided into a number of short joints like tl)e antennae, and along its 
outer and its iimer sides are two elevated lines extending its whole 
length. The wing-sheaths are smooth and glossy, with faint elevated 
lines marking the veins of the inclosed wings. They are firmly soldered 




11 

TOBACCO-WOnM. KII-LKD BY INTERNAL PARASITES. THEIR HABITS. 

to the body, and reach two-thirds of its length, and interposc^d between 
them at their ends is a single pair of the leg-sheaths, which exactly equal 
them in length. Along tlieir lower edges are the antennEe-sheaths, regu- 
larly marked with transverse impressed lines, and tapering to a very acute 
point on each side of the end of the tongue-case. The rings of the body 
are closely and continently punctured on their anterior sides and show 
numerous transverse irregular scratches and fine wrinkles towards their 
posterior edges. The breathing pores form a row of oval impressions 
along each side, each having two acutely elevated lines and between them 
a narrow elliptic cleft. On the back at the base of the abdomen is a 
smooth black transverse ridge interrupted in its middle. The three short 
rings at the hind end are rapidly narrowed, forming a conical point having 
at its tip two small thorn-like points, one larger than the other. 

We come in the next place to consider the natural enemies and destro}''- 
ers which restrain this insect from becoming excessively multiplied and 
numerous. Large and vigorous as this tobacco-worm is, enveloped in such 
a tough, leather}' skin, and j(?rking its bod^' about with the force and spite- 
fulness it does when anything molests it, we should scarcely suppose any 
other creature would care to encounter it. And yet it finds its mortal foe 
in a little four winged fly, scarcely a thousandth part of its size. It is truly 
wonderful that such a pigmy as is this fly is able to attack and destroy 
such an elephant as is this worm. The fly alights upon the worm, and with 
the short sting or ovipositor with which it is furnisljcd pierces its skin and 
inserts a minute egg in the puncture. It continues to repeat this opera- 
tion at one point and another upon the back and sides of the worm, until 
its whole stock of eggs, amounting to a hundred or more, is exhausted. 
These eggs hatch minute maggots, which distribute themselves all through 
the body of the worm, feeding upon its fatty substance, but without attack- 
ing any of its vital parts. And thus the worm continues industriously to 
feed and elaborate nourishment for feasting and pampering these greedy 
parasites which are luxuriously rioting within it. If a worm which is thus 
infested be cut into, it appears to be everywhere filled with these little fat 
maggots. When they have got their growth they gnaw out through the 
skin, but instead of dropping to the ground and there secreting themselves 
as they would be expected to do, they still cling to the unfortunate worm, 
each maggot spinning for itself a little oval white cocoon, one end of which 
it fastens to the skin of the worm at the orifice where it has issued from 
it. Thus the worm comes to present the remarkable spectacle of being 
clothed, as it were, with a hundred or more of these cocoons, resembling 
little white seeds like kernels of rice adheiing to and in places wholly cov- 
ering its back and sides. I have counted one hundred and twenty-four of 
these cocoons upon a single worm, and a still larger number will probably 
be found in some instances. 

Those parasitic cocoons are milk white and of a regular oval form, 0.15 
long and 0.06 broad. Their walls are no thicker than thin writing paper 
but are very dense and firm. Their surface is minutely uneven, with a few 
loose, wrinkled threads at one end, whereby they are held to the skin of 



12 

TOBACCO-WOUM. PARASITE DESCntBEB. ItS HEAD. ITS BOBY. 

the worm, yet so slightly that they are liable to be detached by the slight^ 
est force, some of them falling- off, sometimes, merely from the motions of 
the worm. 

When these parasites issne from it the worm has become so weakened 
and exhausted that it ceases feeding and moving about, and in about three 
days afterwards all traces of its vitality have vanished. The multitude of 
minute hooks with which the soles of its pro-legs are furnished, however, 
continue to hold the dead worm to the stalk of the plant, with its head 
hanging downwarks and its body shrunken and flaccid from the evapora* 
tion of its fluids, until some agitation of the plant by the winds or other 
violence detaches it and it falls to the ground. 

In the meantime the parasites change to pupas, and after remaining in 
the cocoons seven days they come out from them in tlieir perfect form. The 
flies are black, with clear transparent wings, and legs of a bright tawny 
yellow color, the hue of bees-wax, with th« hind feet and the tips of the 
hind shanks dusky. They belong to the order Hymexoptera, and to that 
group of the Ichneumon-flies, which in works of science have been termed 
Jchneumoniden adi^citi or the family BRACONm.^. Several of the species of 
this family present the singular character of having the eyes pubescent, 
numerous fine short erect hairs arising from their surface. These pertain 
to a particular genus which has received the name Microgader, from two 
Greek words, equivalent to our English term " small-bellied." It is to this 
genus that these parasites of the Tobacco-worm belong. And they were 
described by Mr. Say, in a posthumous paper which was published in the 
year 1835, in the Boston Journal of Natural History, vol. i, p. 262, under 
the name Microgaater congregata or the Congregated Microgaster, in allu- 
sion to their young being ibund together in such numbers upon a single 
worm. 

The ToBAcco-woRM Parasite, Microgader congregata, is of a coal black 
color and 0.14 long when living. After death it contracts in drying and is 
then scarcely 0.12 in length, and the male is a size smaller, not exceeding 
0.10. Its head is spherioidal, or of a flattened globular furm, with the an- 
tennae inserted in the middle of the front side. The antennee are coarse, 
thread-like, and longer than the body in the male, shorter in the female. 
They are composed of about seventeen joints so closely connected that their 
articulations are difficult to perceive. The joints gradually become slightly 
shorter and less thick as they approach the tips. The palpi and jaws are 
white. The eyes are distant from each other on the sides of the head, and 
in a strong light their surface is seen to be closely bearded over with mi- 
nute short hairs. Between them on the crown the eyelets or ocelli appear 
as three small glassy dots placed at the corners of a triangle. The thorax 
is the broadest part of the body. It is egg-shaped, its surface minutely 
and closely punctured, and back of the middle it is crossed by a deep groove. 
The abdomen is oblong oval, and about the same length as the thorax. It 
is smooth and shining, except the two first segments which are rough from 
obscure shallow punctures, with an elevated longitudinal line in the middle. 
On its underside the three first segments are pale yellow, with a dusky 



13 

TOBACCO-WORM. PARASITE DESCRIBKD. ITS WINGS. 

spot on the middle of eacli, that on tlie third segment being large, and as 
the sutures contract in drying these spots become united. At its tip the 
abdomen in the female is compressed and vertically truncated, with the 
sting forming a conspicuous projecting point at the lower end of the trun- 
cation. In the male the tip is rounded and without any projecting point, 
though when living it may sometimes be seen to protrude two styles or 
slender cylindrical processes pointed at their tips, and between these a 
thicker process from the apex of which a fine bristle is occasionally thrust 
out. The legs are bright tawny yellow, becoming more dull and pale in the 
dried specimen. The hind feet and tips of the hind shanks are smoky or 
blackish. The hind thighs are also blackish at tlieir tips, and frequently 
show a dusky line along their upper sides, extending nearly to the base. 
The icings are hyaline, glassy and iridescent. The forward pair have the 
stigma appearing as a large, opake, triangular, brownish black spot on 
their outer side slightly beyond the middle. The rib or marginal vein is thick 
and brownish black, becoming paler brown towards its base. The basal 
portion of the wing is traversed by two pale longitudinal veins, which 
are parallel, the outer one straight, the inner one curved towards its 
base. The outer vein sends off a long and nearly straight branch obliquely 
outward and backward to the anterior end of the stigma, this branch 
bounding the discoidal and the first cubital cells on their fore sides. The 
discoidal cell is triangular, with the vein on its inner side brown and angu- 
larly bent at one-third and again at two-thirds of its length, giving oif at 
each of these angles a short oblique veinlet, the first one of which is brown 
and the other colorless. The first cubital cell is of the same size with the 
discoidal, and is irregularly six-sided, the anterior and the inner sides being 
quite short; and the veinlet bounding this cell posteriorly is thick and 
brownish black, the inner half of its length being oblique and the outer 
half transverse, ending in the inner angle of the stigma. Beyond this, 
traversing the apical third of the wing are three longitudinal veins, which 
are very slender and colorless. The middle one of these veins is abruptly 
thickened and blackish brown for a very short disiance at its base, this 
thickened portion forming, with the oblique inner end of the veinlet last 
described, two of tlie sides of the small triangular cellule which is common 
in the wings of the insects of this genus and family, but the short veinlet 
which should complete the enclosure of this cellule on its hind side, is 
wholly wanting. 

Mr. Say is wholly silent respecting the interesting habits of this insect, 
merely remarking that he obtained eighty-four of the flies from the larva 
of a Sphinx in the month of June. As I have had the flies come from the 
cocoons in July and also in September, it is probable that they are abroad 
upon the wing during the whole summer season, actively searching for 
suitable worms to inoculate with their eggs. As will be seen from a state- 
ment in one of the following pages, this parasite does not appear to bo 
limited to the tobacco-worm, but preys upon the larvEe of other species of 
Sphinx also. And some of our other species of Microgaster have the same 
habit of fastening their cocoons to the larvte from which they respectively 



14 

TOBACCO-WORM. PARASITE'S COCOONS MISTAKEN FOR EGGS. ITS RAPID INCREASE. 

issue. It is not rare, therefore, to meet with a worm which is thus burthened 
and shackled; and they are justly regarded as great curiosities. Correspond- 
ents have frequently sent me examples of this kind; some of them suppos- 
ing in the fullest confidence that the little cocoons adhering to the back 
of the worm were eggs which the worm had laid, thus demonstrating, as 
it was thought, that the statements made in these Reports were erroneous, 
that it is only in their perfect and never in their larva state that insects 
produce eggs. This is an error into which every one who is not acquainted 
with insects and their wonderful habits and transformations will be very 
apt to fall, the shape, color and size of these cocoons being so much like 
eggs which a large worm like this might be expected to generate. And it 
shows in a strong light how important it is that our population should be 
correctly informed and measurably intelligent in this science. For a person 
^destroying one of these worms will be particularly careful to also destroy 
all these supposed eggs; deeming that in each one of them he in effect 
destroys another worm; instead of which he hereby protects and insures 
the upgrowth of another worm — thus doing the very thing which he is aim- 
ing to prevent. 

Of the hundred flies which are bred from one of these Ichneumonized 
tobacco-worms, we may assume that fifty at least will on an average be 
females, to destroy fifty more worms. We thus see what efficient agents 
these insects are in checking the increase of this moth, and what an 
important service they hereby render us. Indeed, when we recur to the 
fact that these parasites attain their growth in a space of time so very 
much shorter than does the tobacco-vv^orm, whereb}' there is probably two 
generations of them to one of the latter, it will appear that tiie parasites 
issuing from a single Ichneumonized worm will suffice to destroy two 
thousand and five hundred other worms within the time that one brood of 
these worms is growing up to maturity. They would therefore speedily 
exterminate these worms from existence, were they permitted to go on 
multiplying themselves without any check. And they are so well secreted 
and protected that there would seem to be little risk of their being dis- 
covered and destroyed by any enemy. For during their larva state, when 
they are soft and tender and without feet or any other means of defence or 
escape, they are lodged within the body <»f the tobacco-worm where they 
are secure from harm; and when they issue therefrom they immediately 
enclose themselves in tough paper-like cocoons, in which tlH!}' lie hid until 
they have acquired wings wherewith to flj' away from any danger which 
menacps them. Thus they would seem to be protected and safe from 
injury. Yet the artifice of enclosing themselves in cocoons fails t^ procure 
them immunity. Another minute insect has been created and endowed 
with the sagacity to discover them in the little pods in which they hide 
themselves, and there this creature metes out to them the same treatment 
which the tobacco-worm receives from them. Thus the tobacco-worm 
does not die unavenged. The lingering, miserable death which it has suf- 
fered, its enemies, as if by an act of retributive justice, are doomed to 
undergo in their turn. 



15 

TOBACCO-WORM. A DESTROYER OF THE PARASITE DISCOVERED. 

On one occasion, when I was contemplating one of the tobacco-worms 
which I met with covered over with parasitic cocoons, I noticed a very- 
small fly wanderinj:^ about among the cocoons. My first thought was that 
this fly was probably one of the Microgaster parasites which had just then 
come from some one of these cocoons ; but the query soon arose in mj^ mind, 
whether it might not be an enemy, stinging the cocoons to destroy their 
inmates in the same manner they had destroyed the tobacco-worm. Its 
very small size did not enable the eye to discover whether it really was 
one of the Microgaster flies. I was so fortunate as to succeed in enclosing 
it in a small vial, and then upon examining it with a magnifier, I became 
assured it had not come from the cocoons, for I perceived it pertained to a 
different group of parasites from that to which the Microgaster genus 
belongs. But how could the highly interesting and important point be 
ascertained, whether it actually was a destroyer of the inmates of these 
cocoons ? With the hope of obtaining further light upon this subject a 
portion of the stalk of the plant with the tobacco-worm adhering to it 
was cut off and enclosed in a glass jar. On the fifth day thereafter, two 
Microgaster flies made their appearance in the jar, and the worm now 
being dead and beginning to become putrid, the cocoons were all removed 
from its surface and enclosed in a vial. It was feared that this slight vio- 
lence to them had destroyed their inmates, as day after day now elapsed 
and no more flies came from them. But, three months later, in December, 
they being kept in a warm room, a dozen flies were discovered, wandering 
around in this vial ; and for some weeks after, others continued to come 
forth from the cocoons. And these proved to be identical with the single 
fly which had been captured among these cocoons so long a time before. 
It was therefore evident that that fly was the parent of these which were 
now issuing from the cocoons ; and so industrious had that little creature 
been, that it had punctured and dropped one of its eggs into all save two 
of the cocoons, which were more than a hundred in number ; and these 
two, it is probable, would not have escaped, if the fly had not been inter- 
rupted and taken away from its wcu'k. 

These destroyers of the insect which destroys the tobacco-worm are very 
small four-winged flies of a shining dark green color, with pale yellowish 
legs and white feet. They belong to the order Hymenoptera and the family 
Chalcidid^e, and are closely related to the Hessian fly parasite, Semiotel- 
lus destructor, figured in my Seventh Report, .plate 3> fig. 1, which figure 
will also serve to represent this insect in almost every particular. It per- 
tains to the genus Fteromalus, a name derived from two Greek words, 
meaning bad wings, the wings in these insects being nearly destitute of 
ribs or veins. As they, by destroying the parasite of the tobacco-worm, 
cause that worm to be more numerous and hereby more injurious to the 
tobacco, and as they will often occur lurking about this plant in search of the 
cocoons upon which to bestow their eggs, they may not inappropriately 
be named the Tobacco Pteromalus. All the flies which cahie from the 
cocoons were females, from which the following description is drawn. 

The Tobacco Pteromalus {Pteromalua Tahacum), is one-tenth of an inch 



16 

TOBACCO-WORM. PARASITE'S DESTROYER DESCRIBED. 

long' to the end of its body, and is of a dark or bottle green color with a 
brassy reflection, and find}' shagreened upon the head and thorax. The 
head is large and placed transversely, about three times as broad as it is 
long, convex in front and concave at its base. Viewed in front it is nearly 
circular, with a large oval eye sliglitly protruding upon each side, of a 
dull red color fading to brown after death. On the crown three ocelli or 
eyelets appear as glassy dots placed at the corners of a triangle. The 
jaws are yellow, their ends brown, with four minute teeth. The palpi or 
feelers are dull white. The antennae, are inserted in the middle of the|face 
and when turned backward reach about half the length of the thorax. 
They become a little thicker towards their tips, and are of a brown color 
with the long basal joint dull pale yellow, and are clothed with a short 
incumbent beard. They are composed apparently of nine joints, the first 
joint being long and smooth, and forming. an angle with the remaining 
joints. The second joint is the smallest of the series, being but little 
longer than thick and obconic in its form. The third joint is thrice as long 
and nearly thrice as thick as the preceding, and has the shape of a pear, 
the contracted portion of its base being formed of two rings or small joints 
which are rarely perceptible even in the live specimen when highly magni- 
fied, except these organs be put upon the stretch. The fourth and fol- 
lowing joints are a third shorter than the foregoing, and are nearly equal 
and square in their outline, each successive joint very slightly increasing 
in thickness and diminishing in length. The last joint is about thrice as 
long as the one preceding it, of an oval or sub-ovate form, rounded at its 
base and bluntly pointed at its apex, and is probably composed as in the 
other species of this genus of three joints compactly united together. 
The thorax scarcely equals the head in width and is egg-shaped and thrice 
as long as wide. On each shoulder is a sliglitl}' impressed line extending 
obliquely backward and inward. The abdomen is a third shorter than the 
thorax, and in the live insect surpasses it in thickness, is egg-shaped and 
convex with its tip acute pointed. When dried it scarcely equals the 
thorax in thickness, and becomes strongly concave on the back and trian- 
gular when viewed from one side, It is smooth, polished and sparkling, 
of a green black color, the middle segments each with a broad purple 
black band visible in particular reflections of the light. Beneath it is black 
and at the tip shows some fine impressed longitudinal lines forming the 
edges of the groove in which the sting is inclosed. The legs are slender, 
pale wax yellow, with the feet and ends of the shanks dull white, the hips 
of the hind legs being stout and black, with their outer faces green blue 
and their tips pale yellow. The feet are five-jointed and dusky at their 
tips. The icings are transparent and reach slightly beyond the tip of the 
abdomen when at rest. The anterior ones are broad and evenly rounded 
at their ends, and have, near the outer margin, a thick brown rib or sub- 
costal vein extending more than a third of their length and then uniting 
with the margin and terminating some distance forward of the tip, after 
sending off a short straight stigmal branch which is thickened at its end, with 
its apex nolched. Towards the inner margin an exceedingly fine longitu- 



17 

TOBACCO-WORM. PARASITE AND ITS DESTROYER. THEIR DIFFERENT MOTIONS. 

dinal vein is perceptible, which, near its middle, g'ives oft" a branch runninj^ 
almost to the inner hind end of the wing. The hind win<i;'S are much 
smaller and without veins, except a brown subcostal one, wliich extends 
into the outer margin and abruptly ends a little beyond the middle. 

All the examples of this species, which I have obtained from cocoons upon 
the Tobacco-worm, have been females. The last of August, 1862, I received 
from Dr. Allen of Saratoga Springs, a larva of the Sphinx Kalmice to which 
thirty-six cocoons were adhering. And the middle of July, the following 
year, H.Markliam, Esq., of Stony Brook, Long Island, sent me the same 
larva, similarly infested. It may here be incidently observed that both 
these gentlemen met with these larvae upon the leaves of the grape-vine. 
As I have repeatedly observed it, in different years, upon the lilac, the 
leaves of which are certainly its usual food, the interesting query arises, 
whether, when it is infested internally with parasites, the}'^ do not cause a 
morbid appetite in the worm, whereby it ceases to relish its natural 
food and comes to crave the leaves of the grape in place of those 
of the lilac ? Flies were obtained from more than half the cocoons 
upon the first mentioned worm, and these being all of one species, I 
supposed they were probably the true parasites of the Lilac-worm. But 
I now find on comparing them, that they are identical with this species 
which is now under consideration. It thus appears that the cocoons ad- 
hering to the Lilac-worm had been formed by a species of Microgaster, 
probably this same species wliich infests the Tobacco- worm, and that the 
flies I obtained were its parasites and consequently were protectois instead 
of destroyers of the Lilac-worm. The cocoons from Mr. Markham, might 
perhaps have given more light upon this subject, and I now regret that, when 
they came to hand, supposing they would only produce the same flies which 
I had examined the preceding summer, I felt that it would be a waste of 
time to attend to the rearing of their inmates. 

Of the flies obtained from the Lilac-worm, four were males, whereby it 
appears that this sex diff'ers from the females above described, in the fol- 
lowing particulars: 1st, their color is lighter and more bright, being bril- 
liant metallic green, when dried becoming blue green; 2d, their antennae 
are tarnished yellow, longer, and not at all thickened toward the tips^ 
their joints being cylindric and a third longer than thick, with the last 
joint egg-shaped and but little longer than its predecessor; 3d, the abdo- 
men is flattened oval and rounding at its tip, with a large translucent pale 
yellow spot near the base; 4th, the legs are paler and pure yellow without 
any mixture of orange or tawny. 

One who is acquainted with this insect and the Microgaster fly, will 
readily distinguish them by their motions, notwithstanding their smallness 
and similarity in size. The Microgaster is very brisk and active in its 
movements, running about with agility and flying away if any danger 
menaces it. This insect on the other hand, appears tame and sedate, walk, 
ing around slowly, and as if with deliberation as to what it ij5 doing; and 
if any annoyance approaches it, to escape therefrom it gives a slight skip, 
throwing itself about an inch, and repeating this leap again and again if 
pursued, it being not at all inclined to take wing. 
2 



18 

TOBACCO-WORM. HAS A SECOND PARASITE. REMEDIES. 

And after these flies have left their cocoons, it is readily told by the 
appearance of each cocoon, whether it is a Microgaster or a Pteromalus 
fly which has come out from it. The Microgaster, by which all the cocoons 
are constructed, makes an opening for its escape in a more neat and 
artistic manner than does its destroyer. When it passes from its pupa 
state and awakens to life in its perfect form, it finds itself closely pent up 
within its narrow cell — so closely that about the only motion it is able to 
make is to turn its head from side to side. And it discovers that by grasp- 
ing with its jaws the wall of its cell, it is hereby able to gradually roll 
itself over in its bed. And now, with the minute sharp teeth at the ends 
of its jaws, it cuts a slit transversely through the wall of its cell, lengthen- 
ing this slit more and more as it gradually turns itself around. Thus it 
cuts the end of its cocoon smoothly oif in the form of a little lid, a few 
ursevered fibres being left on one side, which serve as a hinge to hold 
this lid in its place. The inclosed fly then pressing its head against this 
lid raises it up and crawls forth from its prison. Thus the evacuated 
cocoon has its end smoothly cut ofi", with the severed portion usually ad- 
hering to it. The Pteromalus fly, on the other hand, being a size smaller, 
is able to move about and can probably turn itself around inside of the 
cocojn. And to make its escape it gnaws a hole through the side near 
one end, of sufficient size for its body to pass through; this hole in different 
instances being round, oval, or irregular, and its edges ragged and uneven. 

In addition to the eggs of the Microgaster, which are inserted under the 
skin of the Tobacco- worm and thus are not visible externally, I have 
occasionally met with a worm having one or more eggs glued upon its 
surface, usually placed in a crease of the skin to render the attachment to 
it more secure. These eggs are about three-hundreths of an inch long 
and a third as thick, oval, white, smooth and glossy like enamel. Within 
them a minute soft white worm or maggot becomes formed, which is 
hatched by gnawing through the shell of the Qgg at one end, and as it is 
coming out, it sinks itself downward through the skin of the worm and into 
its body, a blackish dot upon the skin near the end of the empty egg 
marking the point where it has entered. Its history I have not been able 
to trace further than this. The facts show it to be another parasite des- 
troying the Tobacco worm, and that it is probably a two-winged fly belong- 
to the order Diptera. 

The remedies for this insect are remaining to be spoken of. But as we 
have had no personal experience in combatting it, it will not be expected 
that we dwell upon this branch of the subject at any length. 

The leaves of the potato and tomato being of no value, the presence of 
this worm upon them is wholly diregarded, as its limited numbers never 
consume the foliage to such an extent as to perceptibly diminish the growth 
of the tubers in the one or of the fruit in the other of the plants. But 
with the tobacco it is very different. The whole value of this plant depends 
upon its leaves; consequently every morsel which this worm consumes from 
them is a loss, and if the leaves are much eaten the loss is great. The 
utmost vigilance is therefore required to save the tobacco from injury from 



19 

POTATO-BEETLE. ITS LOCALITIES. ITS NAME. 

this enemy. At the South, where they have had long and sore experience 
with the twin sister of our insect, the only remedy found to be effectual is 
searching' out and destroying the worms. This " worming" of the tobacco 
fields, as it is termed, is an indispensable measure, forming a regular part 
of the tobacco culture. After the leaves are grown to a sufficient size for 
the worm to begin to feed upon them, not a day is suffered to pass without 
examining them. The leaves are so large and so very tender and brittle, 
except for a short period at mid-da}^ when they become pliant from being 
somewhat wilted by the heat of the sun, that the utmost care is requisite 
in passing among them to avoid breaking and tearing them. Notwith- 
standing the closest scrutiny some of the worms will be overlooked, at 
each search which is made. Moreover, new moths are coming out and 
depositing their eggs day after day, whereb}'- a succession of worms are 
appearing. Thus it becomes necessary to repeat this examination daily, 
searching out and destroying every worm while it is yet young and small. 
When these ugly looking worms first began to be noticed upon the toma- 
toes in our gardens, some sensitive persons were much alarmed with fears 
that they were poisonous and would render the fruit deleterious if they 
happened to touch or crawl over it. But such fears are wholly groundless. 
The sharp, thorn-like tail of this worm, however, if it chances to penetrate 
the skin, inflicts a painful wound. This is the only thing to be guarded 
agrainst. 



10, Ten-Lixed Potato-beetle, Dor(/p/io?'a 10-/i?im<a, Say. (Coleoptera. Chry- 
scmelidse.) Plate 4, figure 6. 

Eating the leaves of the potato in immense numbers through tho whole summer; a thick, 
oval beetle nearly half an inch long, and of a pale yellow color with five black stripes on each 
wing cover, accompanied by its thick-bodied, worm-like larva of a pale yellow color with rows 
of black dots, and six legs upon its breast and a pro-leg at the pointed end of its body. 

In connection with the foregoing potato-worm, some account may here 
be given of a new enemy which, within the past two or three years, has 
fallen upon the potato-vines in numerous places all over the Northwestern 
States, stripping them of every vestige of their foliage and eating the stalks 
also, and liereby arresting the formation and growth of the tubers. Speci- 
mens of this insect are being frequently sent me for information respecting 
it, whereby I am able to present a description of it in its different stages 
of life and several important facts respecting it. Fortunately for us, it is 
not an inhabitant of our State, being found only in the valley of the Mis- 
sissippi at a distance from our borders. 

Tliis insect was first discovered as being common on the Upper Missouri^ 
by A[r. Say, when accompanying Long's Exploring Expediton to the Rocky 
Mountains. He met with it upon the Arkansas river also. In 1823, he 
published a description of it (Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 
vol. iii., p. 453), naming it from tlie number of the stripes upon its wing- 
covers, Doryphora lO-lineata or the Ten-lined Doryphora — this genus having 
been separated from the old genus Chrysomela, by liliger, to include a 
number of South American species which liave the middle portion of the 



20 

POTATO-BEETLE. ACCOrNTS OF ITS DESTRtTCTIVENESS. 

breast prolonged into a horn-like point, wherefore the name ; Doryphorus 
being a Greek word meaning a spear-bearer, and particularly memorable 
as the name of one of the most celebrated statues of the sculptor Polycle" 
tus. But our insect and a few other species of this genus are destitute of 
the sharp, thorny point alluded to. Chevrolat, in Dejean's Catalogue, pro- 
posed to form these into a distinct genus, named Polygramma — i. e., many- 
lined. But this step has not been approved of by subsequent authors. 

The year after Say described this insect, the distinguished German ento- 
mologist Germar also published it, under the name Dyrophora juiicta, 
which, of course, will be merely a synonym of the anterior name. 

The first notice of this as being an injurious insect, appears in the Prairie 
Farmer of August 29th, 1861 (vol. viii., p. 116), in a letter from J. Edger- 
ton, of Gravity, Iowa, saying that " they made their appearance upon the 
vines as soon as the potatoes were out of the ground, and there being a 
cold, wet spell of weather about that time, they devoured them as fast as 
they were up." They appeared most fond of the Prince Albert variety; 
doing but little injury to several other kinds. Several generations appeared 
to grow up in the course of the summer. The specimens were sent to 
D. Thomas, Esq., of Marion, Williamson county, 111., who in reply announces 
them to be the species above named, and says that this same insect "is 
found in abundance in Southern Illinois ; but so far I have only discovered 
it on worthless weeds and low shrubs ; and here it has not proved injurious 
to useful vegetation," wherefore he thinks it is only accidental that it has 
fallen upon the potatoes in Mr. Edgerton's vicinity, and that some pecu. 
liarity of the plants, state of the atmosphere, or other influence may next 
year cause it to forsake the potato and take up its residence upon some 
other plant. 

The next year, Thomas Murphy, of Atchison, Kansas, sent a number of 
the beetles to the Valley Farmer, with an accompanying letter, published 
in that periodical July, 1862 (vol. xiv., p. 209), saying that in August, 1861, 
" soon after a heavy shower of rain, these bugs suddenly made their appear- 
ance in large numbers on the potato vines. They were so nun»erons that 
in many instances they would almost cover the whole vine. It is no exag- 
geration when I tell you that we have often, in a very short time, gathered 
as many as two bushels of them. When the cold weather set in they dis- 
appeared. Early this spring I was setting out some apple trees, and away 
down in the hard yellow clay, I found these bugs apparently dead, but put 
them in the sun and they immediately came to life. They have again (May 
22) made their appearance in large numbers in my garden. Last j'ear 
tliey first ate up everything green on the potato vines, then commenced on 
the tomatoes, and so on, on everything green. Strange to say, they trouble 
no one else." Some of the beetles had been forwarded to Benj. D. Walsh, 
Esq., of Rock Island, Illinois, who communicates their name and a good 
figure, but is singularly unfortunate, not to say erroneous, in several of 
his statements made in connection with this subject ; for instance, that the 
New York weevil is "an exclusively western species," "Mr. Murphy's 
account is the first on record of this beetle occurring in gardens in such 



21 

POTATO-BEETLE. ITS EGGS AND LARVA DESCRIBED. 

numbers as to be injurious," Sac. He regards the fact of Mr. Murphy's 
finding the beetles under ground in the spring, as full proof that this insect 
always goes under ground to pass its pupa state; overlooking the additional 
fact that Mr. M. found these beetles lying dormant and apparently dead, 
which indicates that no warmth had at that time penetrated the earth 
sufficient to change them from their pupa to their perfect state. Mr. M's. 
recital of his observations would seem to make it plain that it is in their 
perfect, not in their pupa state that they hibernate. He says the beetles 
were immensely numerous; but when the cold weather set in they disap- 
peareds Early the next spring he again found them away down in the 
hard yellow claj', apparently dead but immediately reviving when exposed 
to the sun. And finally, May 22d, they had again made their appearance 
abroad in large numbers. Everything thus appears to show that these- 
beetles remain abroad in full force until a frosty night cuts off their food 
and chills them, whereupon they hasten into any crack they can find in the 
hard clay soil, or under any log or stone lying on the surface. Tliey there 
become dormant and thus repose through the winter, and with the warmth 
of returning- spring revive and issue from their retreats. 

Specimens of this beetle, its eggs and larvae, we received first from John 
S. Bowen, Elkhorn city, Nebraska, in May, 1863. Similar remittances have 
since come to hand from different parts of Iowa. A C(jrrespondent at Web- 
ster City writes that these insects are " very voracious feeders, not only 
denuding the vines of every vestige of leaf, but also devouring the stalks. 
Killing them seems to do no good, they breed so rapidly; and as they fly 
through the air, they would soon be re established were they all extermina- 
ted from a field. It is now August 1st, and few if any tubers are yet set 
upon by my potatoes, though the planting was very early." And from New 
Sharon we are told that some have been discouraged from planting pota- 
toes, the ravages of this potato-bug have been so great. 

The beetles though sent from such a great distance have in every 
instance reached me alive, whilst the larvae accompanying them have 
been nearly or quite dead, except iu two or three instances. The eggs 
also uniformly hatch and the young from them perish before they come to 
iiand. Kept in confitiement, the beetles usually live so Jong as they are 
supplied with food. I have thus kept an individual captured in May, 
until tlie frosts of autumn destroyed my supply of potato and tomato 
leaves. And beetles newly born, if graduall3' exposed to the cold, will 
undoubtedly become torpid and dormant, and lying in this state through 
the winter will revive and n'turn to activity with the return of warm 
weather. 

The female iu confinement drops her eggs in little clusters upon the 
leaves on wliich she has been feeding. The eggs are bright yellow, 
smooth and glossy, 0,06 long and 0,035 broad, of an oval form with rounded 
,«nds. 

The Larva, when full grown is over a half inch in length and half as 
thick, being thickest back of the middle and tapering to a point at its tip. 
It is a thick plump grub, strongly arched above, and when viewed on one 



22 

POTATO-BEETLE. THE BEETLE DESCUIBED. 

side its outline is nearly the form of a crescent. The head is small and 
much narrower than the fore part of the body, of a flattened spherical 
form. Its mouth is furnished with short conical, jointed feelers and 
lar"-e jaws which are blunt at their ends, with little sharp teeth like those 
of a saw. Immediately above the mouth on each side cf the head is a 
small conical and jointed projection which is the antenna. The thorax 
has a large transverse space on the top of its first ring-, of a firmer and 
somewhat coriaceous texture and broadly margined with black on its hind 
side and with dusk}^ at each end. The abdomen is the thickest part of the 
body and is distinctly divided into nine segments. It is very plump and 
rounded, but flattened on its underside. It gradually tapers posteriorly 
into a conical point the apex of which is blunt and serves as a pro-leg, 
two small vesicular processes on its lower side at the end serving as feet. 
There are six legs, placed anteriorly, upon the breast, each leg being com- 
posed of three joints and ending in a small claw. The larva is of a pale 
yellow color, often slightly dusky or freckeled on the back with minute 
blackish dots, and along each side are two rows of large black dots, those 
of the upper row larger, seven in number, not being [continued upon the 
thoracic or the last abdominal rings, each dot having a small breathing 
pore in its centre. The head is black and shining, and more or less mottled 
on the face with dull yellowish. The neck or first ring has a black band 
near its hind edge; the second ring has also either a short black band or 
two black dotSj whilst the third ring usually shows two small black dots 
on its back. On the narrow tip of the body are two black bands, the 
anterior one having at its end on each side a small black dot, and beyond 
this a large black dot which is the last one of the lower row of dots along 
the sides. On the next ring forward is a transverse row of six small 
equidistant black dots, in addition to the two large dots on each side, 
vphereof the upper one is the last of the upper lateral row, and the lower 
the penultimate one of the lower row. The legs are black; and often along 
the middle of the body, on the underside, is a row of transverse black spots 
or cloude, and also a row of small black dots upon each side. 

The Beetle or mature insect is 0,40 lung and 0,25 thick, the female being 
slightly larger. It is of a regular oval form, very convex above and flat 
benealh, of a hard crustaceous texture, smooth and shining, of a bright 
straw color, the head and thorax being sometimes tawny yellow, which is 
the color of the underside; and is dotted and marked with black. After 
death its colors often fade, becoming more dull and dark. The head is near- 
ly spherical and little more than half the width of the thorax, into which 
it is sunk nearly or quite to the eyes. It is sprinkled over with fine 
punctures and shows on the front an impressed medial line, and on each 
side of this a wider shallow indentation. On the crown is a triangular 
black spot. The nose piece or clypeus, occupying the space between the 
antennae, is nearly semicircular and placed transversely, and is coarsely 
and closely punctured. The jaws are coarsely punctured, black at their 
tips, and have a slender black line along their outer edge. The tips of 
the palpi or feelers are dark brown. The antennae reach nearly to the base 



23 

POTATO-BEETLE. THE BEETLE DESCKIBED. REMEDIES. 

of the thorax when turned backward. They are gradually thickened 
towards their tips, twelve-jointed, the last joint being- quite small, conical, 
and sunk into the apex of the preceding joint. Tlie five first joints are pale 
yellow or tawny, obovate, the basal one largest, and the third one longer than 
either of the other three. The remainingjoints are black and somewhat globu- 
lar. The thorax is transverse, twice as broad as long, broadly notched in front 
for receiving the head, and its hind side convex. Five punctures are scat- 
tered over its surface, these punctures becoming more numerous and coarser 
towards the outer sides. It is commonly margined all round by a slender 
black line. In the centre are two obh-ng black spots which diverge for- 
ward. Back of these is a small black dot which is often wanting; and on 
each side are about six small black spots; one towards the base, of an oval 
form and placed transversely; and two round ones, nearly upon a line for- 
ward of this, the three being equidistant from each other; two towards 
the hind angle, placed close together and often united, the inner one of 
these being largest of the six; and the sixth one placed halfway between 
the two last and the forward angle. The scutel is dark brown. The wing- 
covers have the sutural edge dark brown, and five equidistant black stripes 
on each. The first or inner stripe is shortest and tapers backward as it 
gradually approaches the suture, terminating in a very long slender point 
a considerable space forward of the apex. The two next stripes are broadest 
and are united at their tips, beyond which they are sometimes prolonged 
into the end of the fourth stripe. The outer stripe is the most slender and 
longest of all, placed on the outer margin but terminating before it attains 
the apex. The wing covers are also punctured in rows extending along 
the margin of the stripes, the rows being uneven and the middle ones 
double; and the outer interspace is also punctured. 'Beneath, the sockets of 
the legs are black or edged with black, and on the hind breast is a trans- 
verse black spot on each side, forward of the insertion of the hind legs, 
and also a black stripe on the outer margin of the hind breast, outside of 
which on the parapleura is a triangular black spot. The abdomen is finely 
punctured on the disk and base, and has a short black band on the middle 
of the anterior edge of each segment except the last, and near the outer 
margin a row of six black dots. The legs are tawny yellow, with the hips 
at least of the hind pair black and also the knees and feet. 

Say mentions a variety of this beetle having the wing-covers white. 
This is probably always their color when recently disclosed from the pupa. 

What will be the best remedies for this new insect enemy caa only be 
ascertained by experiments with it in its native haunts when its habits 
are more fully observed. We know not whether turkeys and other fowls 
relish these beetles, whereby they may be employed to aid in lessening 
their numbers. The large size of the beetles and their sluggish move- 
ments favor their being readily noticed and picked from off tke vines.. 
But their numbers are so immense as to dishearten from attempts to thus 
get rid of them unless some way can be devised to gather them rapidly 
in large quantities. The method that has been resorted to with some suc- 
cess against the blistering flics where they have been numerous on the 



24 

GARDEN TIGEE-MOTH. ITS AMERICAN HISTORY. MOTH DESCRIBED. 

potato vines, may be of utility, namely, holding a pan with an inch or 
two of water in it, under the vines here and there, and shaking and knock- 
ing the insects off into it, the water holding them from escaping until a 
quantity are gathered, when tliey may be emptied into a bag, and another 
quantity gathered. Tiiey can be killed by immersing the bag in boiling 
water, and its contents may then be fed to the swine. 

11. Garden Tiger-moth, Jrd/a Cq/a, Linnfeus. (Lepidoptera. Arctiidaj ) 

Eating the leaves of lettuce, strawberries, Ac, a large thick -bodied caterpillarnearly two 
inches Ion", of a black color with a row of white shining dots along each side and thickly clothed 
with long soft hairs which are black upon the back and red on the neck and sides; enclosing 
itself in a thin pale brown cocoon from which towards the end of July comes a large beautiful 
brown moth with white spots and many irregular stripes crossing its fore wings, its bind wJngi 
ochre yellow with about four large round blue black spots. 

This truly elegant insect, named Caja or the bride by Linnaeus, and the 
caterpillar of which is popularly called the Garden Tiger in England, is 
abundant all over Europe, but as yet is quite rare in this country. Several 
specimens were met with in our State at Trenton Falls, by Mr. Edward 
Doubleday, in 1831. A male has long been in my collection, which I think 
was taken the same year at Canajoharie and presented me by Wm. S, 
Kobertson; and when closing these pages for the printer, on the evening 
of July 21th, 1864, a female came in at the open door of my study, flying 
slowly around with a rustling of its wings which indicated it to be some 
moth of a large size and heavy body. 

One of Mr. Doubleday's specimens was presented to Dr. Harris, by whom, 
first in the year 1841, in his Report to the Legislature on the Lisects of 
Massachusetts Injurious to Vegetation, it was described as a new species 
under the name Arctia Americana, although Godartbad previously regarded 
it as identical with the Caja, in which opinion Boisduval and other French 
naturalists have since continued to concur. In Agassiz' Lake Saperior, 
Dr. Harris gives a more full description and a figure of this moth, in 
which he says the white spots and rivulets on its fore wings are the same 
as in the European insect, but that it is distinguished from that by the 
white band margining the thorax in front. But in a European specimen 
which I have before me, this white band is present and conspicuous as in 
the American examples, except that it is less broad; which is a circum- 
stance of no importance in an insect subject to such great variations in its 
colors and marks. Thus we are left without any grounds, for regarding 
this as different from the European species. 

This moth measures from two and a half to three inches across its wings 
when they are extended, the males being a trifle smaller than the females. 
It is of a rich brown color, the hue of burnt coffee, with some of its parts 
bright ochre yellow or orange red, and it is variegated with spots and 
marks of milk white, crimson I'cd, dark blue and black. But it varies 
abtonishingly in its colors and marks. I draw the following description 
of the spots and markings chiefly from the living specimen before me, in 
which tiiey appear to occur in their most usual and perfect condition. 

The Ixead is brown. The palpi or feelers form two conical points project- 



25 

GAnCEN TIGER-MOTH. ITS ASTONISHING VARIETIES OP COLOIl. 

ing obliquely forward and downward from the lower front part of the head, 
of a darker brown with longer and less dense hairs of a red color along" 
their underside and around the mouth. Coiled up between them is the 
spiral tongue, of a white color, and only equaling- them in length when 
extended. The anternise reach a third of the length of the wings. They 
resemble slender, tapering threads, white, their tip.s brown, their basal 
joint red, and a brown stripe along their un.lerside. In the males they are 
pectinated, each joint sending oft' two short brown branches. The thorax 
is globular and brown, with a broad white band in front, occupying tlic 
base of the collar and extending backward across the shoulders and uniting 
with the white .stripe or spot upon the middle of the base of the wings. 
The collar is edged all around with crim.son red, forming a slender margin 
along the lower edge of the white band and on each side crossing this band 
and forming a narrow arched band above it. The base of the thorax is 
also slenderly margined with red, which color widens on each side into a 
small spot. The sides of the thorax are pale brown, with a pencil of red 
hairs in the axilla of the wings. The abdomen is bright ochre yellow with 
a row of brownish black spots along the middle of the back, the spots 
transverse, four ov five in number, the hind ones largest. The underside 
is pale brown with the edges of the segments yellow. The icings are 
brown, slightly pale towards their hind ends. Their base is white, which 
color near the middle of each wing is prolonged backwards into a long 
acute point, forward of which are two long egg-shaped brown spots placed 
side by side, and on the outer edge are two larger brown spots slightly 
parted from each other by a curved line, with a fifth spot on the inner edge. 
Towards the middle of each wing on the outer edge are two large white 
spots of an irregularly triangular form. Beyond these, crossing the wing 
transversely from the outer margin to the inner angle is a wavy white baud 
which is thickened at its ends. P^'rom the middle of this band a curved 
branch extends forward and inward to tlie inner margin; and from the 
same point on tiie opposite side of the band another branch extends back- 
ward, nearly to the hind edge, when it abruptly turns outward and forward 
and then outward and backward, reaching the outer margin of the wing 
forward of the tip. In the closed wings tiiese markings upon their hind 
part are observed to be beautifully symmetrical, having some resemblance 
to the Greek letter omega with a bar placed horizontally across its middle. 
The lower wings are deep ochre yellow with four large round blackish blue 
spots having a black margin, whereof three are situated in a row forward 
of the hind margin, the inner one of these being the smallest, and the 
fourth one, which is slightly transverse, is placed forward of the centre. 
The undersides are colored and marked similarly but much more pale and 
dim. The legs are brown with the thighs crimson except upon their under- 
sides, and the shanks and hind feet are yellow on their undersides. 

In respect to its colors and spots, this moth is truly protean, varying to 
an extent which is most astonishing. Thus the fore wings aVe sometimes 
black instead of brown, with all vestiges of the white spots and rivulets 
upon them vanished. In other instances they are of the same bright yellow 



26 

GAKDEN TIGER-MOTH. ITS EGGS. C VTERPILLARS DESCRIBED. THE COCOON AND CIIRYSALTS, 

or red color with the hind wings, with a few brown spots upon them; and 
in still other instances they are white with but a faint tinge of yellow. The 
hind wings sometimes have their spots diminished and nearly obliterated. 
In other instances these spots are increased in number and in size; again, 
they become confluent, forming two broad black bands across the wing; 
and finally, the whole wing is black and without spots. The Arctia Par- 
thenos it cannot be doubted is one of the latter varieties of this species, in- 
termediate between the banded winged and black winged varieties. It is 
erroneously credited to Kirby in the Smithsonian Catalogue of Lepidoptera. 
It was described and figured by Dr. Harris, in Agassiz' Lake Superior, and 
is essentially disting'uished as having tlie base and inner margin of its 
hind wings black with the remaining portion yellow crossed by a broad 
black band. 

The female moth above mentioned dropped seven hundred and forty-four 
eggs in the course of four days after her capture. Being so prolific it is 
evident this insect would very soon become as abundant in our country as 
it is in Europe if it were not checked in its increase. It must be that 
nearly all the caterpillars of each generation arc destroj'ed, probably by 
birds. Judging from the proceedings of the female when in confinement, 
her eggs are laid upon the surface of leaves and firmly glued thereto in 
clusters of from fifty to one hundred, the eggs in each cluster being placed 
for the most part in contact with each other in regular rows. The eggs are 
quite small, being about 0.034- in diameter. They are globular, shining, 
white, with a large faint spot on their summit of a watery appearance. 

The caterpillars which come from these eggs grow to about two inches 
in length and have athick cylindrical body which authors describe as being 
of a deep black color, densely covered with long soft hairs which arise in 
bundles from elevated warts. These hairs are of a bright red color on the 
three firot rings and along the sides, and on the rest of the body are black 
with their ends gray. The warts from which the red hairs arise are of a 
bluish gray color; those from which the black ones come are blackish brown. 
Three of these warts of a blue color and placed in a row one above the 
other on each side of each ring are most obvious to the eye. The breathing 
pores form a row of s'Muiiig white dots along each side. The head is shin- 
ing black; the underside and feet are blackish brown. From all the other 
caterpillars of our country this is particularly distinguished by the three 
blue warts on each side of each segment, and the conspicuous row of white 
dots along each side of the body. As it approaches maturity, however, its 
unusually large size will alone suffice to point it out. It would appear to 
be this creature to which Hiawatha is represented to refer, in Longfellow's 
much admired po3m, as 

"The mighty caterpillar 
Way-muk-kwana, with the bear skin, 
King of all the caterpillars! ' 

When it is fully grown it encloses itself in a grayish brown cocoon of a 
soft closely woven texture, intermi.Ked with the hairs of its body. In this 
it changes to a chrysalis, having the form of an elongated egg, of a shining 
black color with the sutures yellowish brown and the pointed end two-lobed 



CtJT-WOnMS. THE INJtTRIES THEY DO. 

and studded with little rust-colored points. The insect remains in the co- 
coon from eighteen to twenty days and then comes forth in its perfect state. 
Like other caterpillars of the group to which it belongs, this is a general 
feeder, subsisting upon low herbaceous plants of almost every kind, and 
on a pinch feeding also upon the leaves of trees and shrubs. An incident 
related by Duponchel (Tlist. Nat. des Chenilles), shows how able it is to 
sustain itself upon any substance of a vegetable nature Avhich is sufficiently 
soft for it to masticate. Having forgotten one of these caterpillars which 
he had wrapped up in a paper envelope, and inclosed in a wooden box, he 
afterwards discovered it had nourished itself upon the paper, as was pro- 
ven by the dry pellets of excrement in the box, and had after this com- 
pleted its transformations, producing a moth whicli was a dwarf in its size 
but with very bright colors. Some curioua facts are reported, showing the 
colors of this moth to vary according to the quality of the food on which 
the caterpillar is nourished. Thus if it be fed upon lettuce or other vege- 
tation of a similar succulent nature, the colors of the moth are more dim 
and pale than when it is renred on substances which are less watery. The 
German collectors are said to obtain the variety having the under wings 
black by forcing the caterpillars to feed exclusively upon the leaves of the 
walnut. Some of the French, however, are stated to [lave tried this with- 
out success. It may be that some concurring- atmospherical influences, 
some peculiarity of the season, is also necessary to insure the particular 
result. The species certainly presents a most interesting subject for the 
experiments of amateurs. 

12. Corn Cut-Worm, Agrotis nigricans, Linn., Var. Maizi. (Lepidoptera. 
Noctuidte.) Plate 4, fig. 2, 3. 

In June, severing the young Indian corn and other plants, half an inch above the ground, by 
night, and by day hiding itself slightly under the surface; a thick, cylindrical, gray worm an 
inch and a qiiS,rter long, with rather faint, paler and darker stripes, the top of its neck shining 
black with three whitish stripes. 

The insects from which our farmers experienced the greatest vexation 
and injury the past season (1863), were the Cut-worms — the same worms 
which are sometimes called corn-grubs, and which in English agricultural 
works are termed surface grubs or surface caterpillars. The name Cut- 
worm, however, is most conuiionly given to them in this country, both in 
print and in common conversation, and appeal's to be the most appropriate 
and best term by whicli to designate them, having allusion as it does to a 
habit which is peculiar to these worms, namely, that of cutting off tender 
young plants as smoothly as though it was done with a keen-edged knife. 

These Cut-worms are among the most important injurious insects of our 
country. It is mostly in our fields of Indian corn and in our gardens that 
their depredations are noticed. They are so common as to occasion some 
losses almost every year; whilst every few years they make. their appear- 
ance in such numbers as to nearly or quite ruin the corn-fields, obliging the 
proprietors to plant their ground a second and even a third time, or to re- 
plow it and sow it with a different crop. Thus, in consequence of the pre- 



28 

CtJT-WORMS. EAULY NOTICES AND RECORDS OP THEJR iNJtJRIfig. 

Bence of this worm in our country, the labor of the husbandman is fre- 
quently doubled to obtain from his land a crop either materially diminished 
in amount or of a less valuable kind from that which he would be able to 
harvest were it not for this enemy. The attention of tlie farmers of our 
State was this past season prominently directed to the rearing- of flax, and 
a breadth of land was given to this crop far exceeding what has ever 
before been assigned to it. But soon after the yonng flax appeared above 
the ground, these Cut- worms began their depredations, feeding upon and 
wholly consuming tlie small tender plants to such an extent that many 
fields had large patches in them which were eaten perfectly bare, whilst 
in others the crop was totally destroyed. 

Many of our injurious insects are new pests which have but recently 
been observed in our country. But these Cut-worms appear always to 
have'' been here, depredating upon and despoiling the cultivated crops in 
centuries gone by, the same that they are now doing. Before European 
settlers arrived upon this continent, the cornfields of the Indians are said 
to have been ravaged at times by these worms, this being of all others a 
disaster to them of which they were most fearful, and one whicli they felt 
themselves wholly powerless to avert, their only resort for protecting their 
fields from this calamity being that indicated in the lines of the poet: 

" Draw a magic circle round them, 

So that neither bligh^ nor mildewj ■> 

Neither burrowing worm nor insect. 
Shall pass o'er the magic circle." 

And this is well known to have been a casualty of frequent occurrence all 
along since the soil of our country has been cultivated by civilized men. 
In those diaries which have occasionally been kept in different parts of our 
land by persons who have been curious to preserve a record of local inci- 
dents of interest, we are sure to meet ever and anon with the statement, 
"Indian corn was this year greatly injured by the worms," "The season 
was wet and cold, and the worms made extensive ravages on the corn," 
and other entries of the same purport. From one of these sources we learn 
that a century ago there had been a distressing drouth in 1761, followed 
by an unusually long and severe winter and a late spring. " When at last 
the corn was planted, millions of worms appeared to eat it up, and the 
ground must be planted again and again. Thus many fields were utterly 
ruined." (Flint's Second Report, Mass. Board of Agriculture, p. 40.) It, 
however, may have been the Wire-worm which occasioned at least a por- 
tion of the destruction here related, for usually when one of these worms is 
numerous the other is so likewise. It is unnecessary to mention other yeara 
in which we have little more than the mere fact stated that these corn 
worms were very injurious. 

In addition to such manuscript mementoes, the published allusions to these 
pests date far back. Upwards of seventy years ago, when the old Agri- 
cultural Society of our State was first organized, in a circular which the 
Society issued, containing inquiries upon diflferent topics on which informa- 
tion was solicited, the first query respecting insects was, " Is there any 



^9 

CUT-WORMS. HAVE NEVER YET BEEN INVESTIGATED. 

way of destroying the _c:rubs in corn and flax ? " No answer to this inquiry, 
of sufficient importance for publicati(.)n, was received. 

But, although these Cut-worms have always been such a formidable foe 
in this country, against which the cultivators of the soil have had to con- 
tend, they have not, down to the present day. been subjected to any care- 
ful scientiHc examination. It was formerly supposed they were all of but 
one kind, one species of insect. In our day it has been ascertained that 
they are of several different kinds, and that they are bred from a particular 
group or family of millers or n:oths, of a dark color, which fly about in the 
night time and remain at rest and hid from our observation during the day — 
most of them belonging to the genus named Agrotis by naturalists. But 
the observations which have been made upon these Cut-worms have been 
so hasty and superficial, that, when we see one of these worms cutting o£f 
the young corn in our fields or the cabbage plants in our gardens, we are 
unable to give it its exact name; we are unable to say what particular 
species of miller or moth it is which has produced that worm. 

All that has yet been done towards a scientific investigation of this sub- 
ject may be narrated in a few words. 

Upwards of forty years ago, Mr. Brace, of Litchfield, Ct., in a short arti- 
cle published in the first volume of Silliman's Journal, gave what he evi- 
dently regarded as a sufficient elucidation of this matter. It appears that 
in a patch of ground planted with cabbages, where the worms had been 
numerous, he found their pupae to be common, lying a few inches below the 
surface, just after the worms had disappeared. From some of tliese pupse 
he obtained the miller or moth. In the article alluded to, he merely des- 
cribes this miller as being the insect which produces the Cut-worm, naming 
it the Phalena devastator or the Devastating miller. As he supposed all the 
Cut-worms were of one kind, he gives no description of the worm from 
which this miller is produced. And thus it remains unknown to this day 
what the characters and appearance of the worm are which belongs to this 
miller which Mr. Brace described. 

Some ten years after this. Dr. Harris, one season, gathered a number of 
full grown Cut-worms from different situations, to breed the moths from 
them; but what is most surprising, he took no notes of the differences in 
the appearance of these worms. He obtained from them four different 
moths in addition to the one which Mr. Brace had previously obtained. 
These he names and describes, but is unable to give any account of the 
worms which belong to either one of these species. 

In the Second Report which I presented to this Society, I gave very exact 
figures of the miller which Mr. Brace described, and of two others of the 
most common millers of our country belonging to the same group; and I 
also described five of the Cut-worms which I had noticed as being common 
kinds in our cornfields and gardens. Finally, in my Third Report I was 
able to give an account of one of our Cut-worms, and the moth which was 
raised from it. 

And this is the posture in which this subject now stands. Seven of the 
moths or millers of our country, which produce Cutjworms, have been named 



30 

CUT-WORMS. OCR ILL SUCCESS IN REARING THEM. 

and described. But only r.ne of thern is known to us in its larva state. 
We also know that at least five other Cut-worms, in addition to this one, 
are formidable enemies to us, depredating every year, more or less, upon 
the young- plants in our fields and gardens, but we know not the species to 
which they respectively pertain, and consequently are unable to distinguish 
either of them definitely, by giving to it its correct name. 

I have for a great many years regarded these Cut-worms as a most 
important subject requiring to be elucidated. And accordingly, almost 
every year, upon meeting with some of these worms, I have written in my 
notes a particular description of them, and have endeavored to feed and 
rear them to their perfect state, but without success. They are very intol- 
erant of confinement, especially when they are not grown to their full size. 
Upon discovering that they are imprisoned, they lose all relish for food, 
and become intent on one thing only, namely, to find some orifice in their 
prison walls through which to escape. Accordingl}^, when the shades of 
evening arrive, they come out from the earth in the box or pot in which 
thej' are placed, and crawl hurriedly' and anxiously around and around, the 
whole night long, as I have found on going to them with a light. The 
vegetables transplanted into the box ioi them to feed upon remain un- 
touched. In this manner, they in a few nights wear th^ir lives away, and 
are found lying stark and stiff on the surface of the dirt of their cage. 
From the experience I have had, I regard them as among the most difficult 
insects which I liave ever taken in hand to feed and rear from their larva 
to their perfect state. 

It had accordingly become evident to me that a suitable knowledge of 
these Cut-worms could never be gained in the marmer I had attempted — 
by casual observations made at moments snatched from other investiga- 
tions. It was only by making them the leading subjects of examination; 
devoting to them ample time and care and vigilance; studying them as they 
were growing up in the fields and gardens; watching them from day to 
Aay, there, in their natural haunts, until they became fully matured and 
were done feeding, and tlien placing them in cages to complete their trans- 
formatiouiJ and reveal to us what the}' are in their perfect states; I say, it 
had become evident to me that it was only in this manner that the requisite 
knowledge of these creatures could be obtained, to prepare such an exact 
history of them as their importance and the advanced state of science at 
this day demand. 

I have, therefore, for several years, had it in contemplation, when a 
season occurred in which these worms were numerous, to devote my chief 
attention to them. And accordingly, cm becoming aware last May, that 
these worms would be quite common in my vicinity, I resolved to make 
them the subjects of special investigation. 

And I now proceed to give a summary account of these insects and their 
habits, and ihe progress whicli the researches of the past season has ena- 
bled us to make towards a more full and exact knowledge of them. 

It is in midsummer, mostly in the month of July, that the moths or mil- 
lers come abroad and lay the eggs from which the Cut-worms are bred. 



31 

CUT-WORMS. YOUNG WORMS IN AUTUMN. FALL PLOWING TO DESTROY THEM. 

The eggs are dropped at the surface of the ground, around the roots of 
grass and other herbage. The worms hatch and feed during tlie autumn, 
coming abroad by night and eating the most tender vegetation which they 
are able to find, and during the daytime Avithdrawing themselves under 
the ground to hide from birds and other enemies, and feeding upon the 
roots of the vegetation which they there meet with. Grass appears to be 
their favorite food, and its young, tender blades and rootlets furnish most 
of these worms their subsistence through the first stnges of their lives. 
During the autumn the earth is so profusely covered with vegetation and 
these worms are so small that no notice is taken of them or the trifling 
amount of herbage which they then consume. They become about half 
grown when the cold and frosty nights of autumn arrive, whereby they 
are no longer able to come out to feed. They then sink themselves deeper 
than usual into the ground, going down to a depth of three or four inches; 
and there, each worm, by turning around and around in the same spot, 
forms for itself a little cavity in which to lie during the winter; and it 
there goes to sleep, and lies torpid and motionless as though it wei'e dead. 
The soil at the depth where these worms are lying very slowly and gradu- 
ally becomes colder and colder as the winter comes on, and at length freez- 
ing, these worms reposing in it are also frozen. And when the warmth of 
spring returns, the ground thawing and becoming warm in the same 
gradual manner, these worms slowly thaw and awake from their long sleep 
and return again to life. The case is analogous to what occurs with our- 
selves when we have a finger or a foot frozen. On coming into a warm 
room, if we keep the frost-bitten part covered with snow or immersed in 
ice-cold water, whereby it veiy slowly thaws and the circulation gentlj' 
and gradually returns to it, the part readil}^ recovers; whereas, if instead 
of this, we hold it to the fire and thaw it suddenly and abruptly, high in- 
flammation and gangrene follows, and we lose the limb. And so, if these 
Cut-worms lying in the ground should be suddenly frozen or thawed, it 
would le fatal to them. 

This brings to our view an important measure which is much practiced 
for the purpose of destroying these worms and securing the corn crop from 
their depredations. Our farmers quite generally endeavor to break up 
their planting ground in the autumn, rather than in the spring, under the 
idea that they thereby disturb these worms in their winter quarters and 
expose them to the cold and frost, whereby a cpnsiderable portion of them 
are destr(.)yed. And I believe it is the general experience of our farmers 
that corn planted upon ground which has been thus broken up in the 
autumn is less liable to be injured by these worms, than where it has been 
broken up in the spring. But these worms, in common with all other 
insects, continue to be active in autumn so long as the weather rem.ains 
warm. It is not till they feel the chill of the autumn frosts that they retire 
into their winter quarters. Therefore, if the ground be broken up early in 
autumn, when the weather is still warm and the worms are in" full life and 
activity, it can be of little, if any avail, for the purpose intended, as they 
will readily crawl into the ground to the depth which they require for their 



3^ 

CUT-WORMS. THEIR HABIT OP SEVERING YOUNG PLANTS. 

protection. In order that tliis fall plowing- should be efficacious, it is 
obvious it should be deferred until near the close of the season, when the 
worms have withdrawn themselves downwards and are lying' torpid and 
inactive in their winter retreat. If the turf under which they are reposing 
be then turned up to the surface, they will be incapable of crawling away 
into any new quarters, and the sudden freezings by night and thawings by 
day to which they will be alternately exposed, we are confident must destroy 
a large portion of them. 

When the spring has returned and we are engaged in making our gar- 
dens, a Cut-worm is occasionally turned up to our view in digging and 
working in the earth there; and if grass has been permitted to grow and 
form a turf around the roots of currant bushes or elsewhere, upon digging 
up and rooting out this grass, we are quite sure of finding a 'number of 
these worms nestled among it, indicating to us that grass more than any- 
thing else furnishes them with the covert and food which they desire. 

Although we thus find these Cut-worms Ij'ing in the soil of the garden 
early in Maj^ it is not until the close of that month and the beginning of 
June that they begin to attract our notice by the injury they do in our 
gardens and cornfields. It is when they are grown to about two-thirds of 
their full size that tliey commence the work which renders them so perni- 
cious to us, — that of severing the young, tender plants. Previous to this, 
during all the first period of their lives, as has already been stated, they lie 
concealed under the ground during the day time, feeding there upon the 
roots of plants, and only venture out by night to feed upon the green vege- 
tation above ground. Although in England they are called surface grubs, 
I discover they are not restrained to the surface of the ground, but mount 
up the sterns of young cabbages and beans and eat portions of their leaves. 
But, about the commencement of Jnne, the nights have become so short and 
the diij's so long, and the worms are now grown to such a size and their 
appetites have become so ravenous, that they are forced to a most singular 
change of their habits. The insipid roots of plants fail to yield them the 
amount of nourishment they require during the eighteen hours of daylight. 
They must either stay out to feed upon green herbage during the daytime, 
or they must, so to speak, set their wits to work to devise some way by 
which they can get this herbage down under the ground so that they can 
there feed upon it. We accordingly see them adopting the curious expedi- 
ent of cutting off tender young plants in order to draw them into the 
ground, whereby they may feed upon them during the long hours of the 
day. Is it not wonderful, that such sluggish, stupid looking creatures as 
these worms are, should have the intelligence to perform such a feat as 
this — cutting off the plant, to enable them to get the end of it down into 
the ground, so that they may cosily lie there and feed upon it in safety — 
gradually drawing it in, more and more, until by the close of the day the 
whole of the plant and its leaves are consumed; a feat strikingly analogous 
to that for wliich the beaver is so renowned, cutting down small trees and 
drawing and swimming them away to build a dam with them. Surely we 
should admire this loathsome-looking worm for such a skillful performance, 



33 

CTJT-WaRMS. THE STRIPED WORM FOLLOWED BY THE LARGER YELLOW-HEADED WORM, 

were it not that it is this very act which renders this creature such a pest, 
such a nuisance to us ! 

As to the kinds of plants which these worms thus sever to feed upon 
thorn, they appear to have but little if any preferences. They relish every- 
thing- that is young and tender and succulent. Thus they attack the corn, 
the flax, the potato stalks in our fields, and in our gardens the cabbage 
plants and beans, cucumber and melon plants, beets and parsnips, and also 
the red-rood and several other weeds. Nor are they limited to herbaceous 
plants. Where a sucker starts up from the root of a tree, while it is yet 
young and tender it is liable to be severed, if one of these worms chances 
to find it. 

They appear to have no discrimination in their taste, but relish equally 
well the most acrid and bitter plants, with those which are mild and aro- 
matic. Thus the onion stalks in our gardens are about as liable to be cut 
off as any other plants; and I have known the acrid smart-weed to be 
severed by them. The past summer, I set out in my garden a few tobacco 
plants, that I might notice what insects would come upon this filthy weed; 
and within a few days after, one of these Cut-worms gave me a very palpa- 
bl(! reminder that he would not tax me for cabbages and beans if I would 
only furnish him with what tobacco he wanted to chew. I have known a 
piece of writing paper to be partially consumed by one of these worms en- 
closed in a box where it became pressed with hunger. And where several 
worms are enclosed together in a box of dirt, over night, without any food, 
it is a common occurrence for the larger ones to devour the smaller ones. 

The past season, it was upon the 22d of May, in a hot bed, that 1 first no- 
ticed a plant severed by a Cut-worm; and the querj' at once arose, how 
could this worm get into such a close and secure place as that was? The 
loam forming the top of the bed had been obtained from the garden; and 
it was evident this worm must have been lying in the soil there, and had 
been brought from thence, in this soil, when the bed was being made. And 
the warmth of the bed had quickened the growth of this worm and brought 
it forward in advance of all its fellows. 

Three days later, the first bean plant in the garden was found cut off by 
another of these worms; and from that time they continued to become more 
common until about the first of June, when they were out in their full force, 
both in the fields and in the gardens. At first I supposed the worms in the 
cornfields were different from those in the gardens. But the more I exam- 
ined and compared them, the more assured I became that they were all of 
one species, although they varied greatly, some being pale and others dark, 
and some having very distinct stripes, whilst others had them scarcely per- 
ceptible. It was the same species which I named the Striped Cut-worm, in 
the Transactions of 1855, p. 545. It continued out in full force, depredating 
everywhere in the fields of flax and corn and in gardens, for a period of three 
weeks, when, the worms having got their growth, began to be less nume- 
rous, and had all disappeared at the end of the month. 

Just as this worm was about to vanish, another one, larger and more 
voracious, came out to occupy its place and continue the work of destruc- 
3 



34 

CUT-WORMS. DIFFERENT OPERATIONS OP THE TWO WORMS. 

tion in ilie fields, none of them being met with in the gardens. It was on 
the 20th of June that, in examining a cornfield, I first noticed this second 
worm, lying under the sods, it being of a white or pale smoky color with a 
bright tawny yellow head, and the same kind which I have lieretofoi-e 
named the Yellow-headed Cut-worm. This cornfield had been broken up 
just before planting, and the roots of the grass were still juicy, succulent 
and unwithered, at least in all the larger masses of turf; and this worm 
evidently preferred these grass-roots to the young corn; for on examining 
a multitude of the hills of corn in which one or more of the young plants 
had been cut off, it was invariably the Striped worm first mentioned, which 
was discovered there; not one of these Yellow-headed worms had as yet 
molested the corn. Five days afterwards, this same cornfield was again 
visited. The weather in the interval had been warm and dry, whereby the 
grass-roots in the clumps of turf had become dry and withered, unadapted 
for feeding the worms any longer. And now on examining where the 
blades of young corn had been newly cut off, the mischief was discovered 
to have been done in nearly half the instances by this Yellow-headed worm, 
which was found lying in the earth contiguous to the severed plant. Thus, 
it was suflSciently demonstrated that so long as it could find any roots of 
grass for its nourishment, this worm did not molest the corn. Therefore 
the corn remained unattacked by it, until about the date specified, namely, 
the 25th of June. A few years before, however, I found this same Yellow- 
headed Cut-worm making severe havoc in a cornfield at the very beginning 
of June — there probably being no juicy roots of grass in this field, on 
which it was able to sustain itself. Having the fact thus established, that 
these worms will not trouble the corn, so long as they are able to find grass 
in the field on which to nourish themselves, it becomes an important ques- 
tion to be considered, whether, after all, it may not be better to break up 
our corn ground in the spring than in the fall; so that hereby, a portion of 
the roots of the turf may remain sufficiently fresh and unwithered to 
feed these Cut-worms and hereby keep them back from falling upon the 
corn. This is a difficult subject to determine; and it is only by repeated 
observations, carefully made, that it can be satisfactorily settled. 

The operations of these two worms were so very different that upon see- 
ing a severed plant it was readily told which worm it was that had cut it 
off', and would be found lying in the ground by its side. The smaller 
Striped worm, which first appeared, cut off the plants half an inch or an 
inch above the surface of the ground; and many of the plants, being sever- 
ed at this height, survive the injury, new leaves pushing up from the 
centre of the stump. Instances were noticed, in which the worm had cut 
off the plant below the lower leaf, which leaf remaining, green and thrifty, 
the plant would thereby be vigorously sustained while new leaves were 
putting forth from its centre. The larger Yellow-headed worm, on the other 
hand, severs tlie plants almost an inch below the surface of the ground, 
whereby tliey are effectually killed in every instance. This worm also 
lies deeper in the ground than the other, it being usually met with about 
two inches below the surface, whilst the smaller worm only goes down 



35 

CUT-WORMS. THEIR PTJPA STATE. STRIPED CUT-WORM DESCRIBED. 

pufficientl}' to hide itself from view. It is also much more irritable, more 
ferocious and combative. If two of them are enclosed in a box together, 
and one crowds against or attempts to crawl over the other, it spitefully 
resents this freedom and snappishly tries to bite the intruder. 

These Yellow-headed worms continued to cut off the corn for more than 
a week after the others had disappeared, remaining out till about the close 
of the first week in July. 

When the Cut-worm is done feeding it crawls down into the earth to the 
depth of three or four inches, where it is not liable to be disturbed by any 
other worms inhabiting the superficial soil. It here doubles itself too-ether 
in the shape of a horse-shoe, and by turning around and around in the 
same spot, presses the soil outward iroin around it, compacting it into a 
thin brittle kind of shell which the wet from any showers of rain 
will not Denetrate, forming a large oval cavity with a smooth sur- 
face on its inside. In this cavity the worm lies motionless and be- 
comes contracted in size and of a stiff and more firm consistency. The 
forward part of its body becomes swollen, more and more, till at 
length the skin bursts open upon the back and the hard shining yellow 
shell of the pupa begins to protrude from this opening. By slight sudden 
starts or shrugs, the skin is gradually thrown ofl" and remains in a shrivel- 
led mass at tiie end of the insect, which is now in its pupa form, without 
any mouth or feet, its shape being that of an elongated egg of a shining 
chestnut yellow color, thrice as long as thick, but only half as long as was 
the full grown worm. This pupa or chrysalis lies quiet and motionless in 
its oval cell under the ground for about four weeks, when its outer shell- 
like covering cracks open upon the fore part of the back, and the moth or 
perfect insect crowds itself out from it, and upward through the loose earth 
to the surface. The first moth from the Striped Cut-worm presented itself 
to us this year on the evening of the sixth of July, and upon the evening 
of the tenth the same moths had become exceedingly numerous. The 
worms had been so diversified in the depth of their color 'and the distinct- 
ness of their stripes, that I had confidently expected to see a similar diver- 
sity in the moths which they produced. I was, therefore, greatly surprised 
to find the latter remarkably uniform, no differences occurring to my obser- 
vation this season that were susceptible of being described as varieties. 

Now that we have ascertained the moth of tiiis, one of our most common 
Cut-worms, it is important that we give the most accurate description of 
it and of the worm from which it comes, that we are able to draw up from 
the numerous specimens we have examined, and thus place this species on 
record so distinctly that it may ever hereafter be readily recognized. 

The Striped Cut-worm, as we have heretofore termed it, is a cylindrical 
worm, usually about an inch in length when disturbed beside the severed 
plants in our gardens and corn fields, and upwards of an inch and a quar- 
ter when it is fully grown. Its ground color is dirty white or ash gray, 
occasionally slightly tinged with yellowish; the top of its neck shining 
black, with three white or pale longitudinal stripes; a whitish line along 
the middle of its back between two dark ones; on each side three dark stripes 



36 

CUT-TVORMS. MOTH OF THE STRIPED WORM DESCRIBED. 

separated by two pale ones, whereof the lower one is broader; often asome- 
what glaucons white stripe below the lower dark one, and all the underside 
below this dull white. This is the best concise general description of the 
worm that I am able to give, the characters stated being sometimes quite 
faint, but in most instances sufficiently plain and distinct. I proceed to 
give a more full description of the several parts. The head is shining black, 
with a white stripe in the middle, which stripe is forked, resembling an 
inverted letter Y. The nose piece and upper lip are whitish, the former 
being wrinkled or longitudinally striated, and the latter having a trans- 
verse row of white bristles. The jaws are black and four-toothed. Ou 
each side is usually a white spot, and in other instances the whole head is 
more or less mottled with white, or is throughout of a tarnished white color 
witii only a dustj' streak on each side of its base. The neck above is of 
the same shining black color and horny substance as the head, with a white 
stripe in the middle, continuous with that upon the head, and a stripe on 
each side, curving slightly outward at its hind end. The sides of the neck 
are dull white, with a short double blackish stripe across the middle. The 
hack is ash gray, this color forming a stripe along each side of the middle, 
where are two dusky lines, and between them a whitish line of the same 
thickness. The sides are dark gray or of the same dusky shade as the two 
lines on the middle of the back, this color being divided into three stripes 
of equal width by two faint pale lines, the lower one broader and formed 
of spots mottling the surface. These pale lines sometimes take on a glau- 
cous white appearance, and sometimes adjoining the lower dusky stripe on 
its underside is a third glaucous white stripe, which is broader than those 
above it, and along its lower edge are the breathing pores, forming a row 
of oval coal black dots. The underside, including all below the breathing 
pores, is dull whitish, the legs being varied with smoky brown, and the 
pro-legs having a ring of this color at their base. 

The Moth is represented, plate 4, figure 2, with its wings spread, and 
figure 3 as we tisually see it when at rest and with its wings closed. It 
measures 0.70 in length and 1.30 across its extended wings, and is of an ash 
or dusky gray color, and distinguished principally by two coal black spots, 
one nearly square, placed outside of the centre of the fore wings, and the other 
nearly triangular, a little forward of it, a roundish nearly white spot sep- 
arating them. Its head is gray, and its palpi or feelers are blackish upon 
their outer side. These organs are held obliquely forward and upward and 
are densely covered with erect hairy scales, giving them a short, thick 
outline of a compressed cylindrical form, and cut off transversely at their 
ends, with a small naked joint protruding therefrom, little longer than 
thick, and scarcely a third of the thickness of the joint from which it pro- 
jects. Coiled up between the palpi and slightly visible on their underside 
is the long spiral tongue or trunk. The antennae are slender, thread-like, 
but tapering towards their tips. They are simple in the females, and in 
the male are toothed like a saw along their opposite sides, the teeth being 
sharp and fringed with minute hairs at their tips. The thorax is the thickest 
part of the body and is of a square form, as is very evident when the 



37 

CtlT-WORMS. WINGS OF THE MOTH DESCniBEn. 

wings are spread. It is gray, with a black band in front, edged on its bind 
side witii an ash gray one, paler than the ground; and on the sjhoulder at 
the base of the fore wings is usually a small spot of dull pale yellow. 
The abdomen is tapering and somewhat flattened, dusky grayish, paler 
towards its base, its tip more blunt in the male than in the female and 
covered with a brush of hairs. The leg>i are blackish gray and hairy on 
their undersides, the spurs at the end of the middle and hind sh;iid\S beinjr 
black in their middle and white at each end. The feet are five-jointed, long 
and tapering, the first joint much the longest and the following ones suc- 
cessively shorter. They are gray, gradually passing into black at their 
ends, each joint having a white ring at its tip. The tvings in repose are 
laid flat, one upon the other, in a horizontal position, sometimes so closed 
together that their opposite sides are parallel, but oftener widening buck- 
ward (as represented in figure 3), and forming a broad shallow notch' at 
their hind end. The fore wings vary in color from ash gray to dusky gray, 
and sometimes have a tawny reddish reflection. Their outer edge is gray- 
ish black, with irregular alternations of black spelts having an asli gray 
spot between them, and towards the tip are about three equidistant pale 
gray dots. The costal area or narrow space between the outer edge and 
the first longitudinal vein is pale ash gray, gradually becoming dull and 
obscure beyond the middle. At the base, on the outer edge, are two black 
spots or short transverse streaks, with a pale gray streak between them, and 
opposite these, on the basal middle of the wing, are similar streaks placed 
obliquely, which are frequently faded to a blackish cloud-like spot, with a 
pale gray streak crossing its middle. Outside of the central p;ut of the 
wing are the stigmas, two large roundish pale gray sp(jts, having a 
square coal-black spot between them and a triangular one forward of 
them. 'Ihe anterior one of these stigmas is broad oval, almost circular, 
and placed obliquely, with its outer end mijre towards the b;ise of the 
wing than is the inner end. It is of a uniform pale gray color, slightly 
paler than any other part of the wing. Its edge is well defined by the 
black color surrounding it, except at its outer end, where it is incmn- 
plete, being confluent with the ash gray color of the costal area. 
The hinder stigma is kidney-shaped, being concave on its hind side, 
and occupying this concavity is a pale gray spot or cloud, quite varijible 
in its size in different specimens, and frequently taking on a bulf or cream 
yellow tinge. This stigma is brownish or watered gra^', becoming piiler 
along its anterior edge, its ends, particularly the inner one, being Vfiguo 
and indefinite, blending with the adjacent coloring, sometimes so much so 
that only its middle portion is distinct. Between these stigmas is a large 
square spot of a coal-black color, occupying the whole space between the 
two midveins of the wing, its fore and hind sides made concave by the 
rotundity of the stigmas which bound it upon these sides Forward of the 
anterior stigma is a second black spot of a somewhat triangular form, also 
occupjnng the whole space between the two midveins at this point. On its 
hind side it is concave and cut off obliquely by the obliquity of the stigma, 
whereby it is prolonged along the inner vein, usually into a long acute 



38 

CUT-WORMS. DESCRIPTION OP THE WINGS CONTINUED. 

point. Its anterior end is cut off, either transversely, obliquely or irregu- 
larly, by a faint pale grey streak, which is a portion of the anterior or 
extra-basal band. (See generalties preceding the description of the winga 
of the Tobacco- worm moth ). In the best specimens this pale streak is dis- 
tinctly seen to be prolonged backwards along the outer side of the black 
spot almost to the stigma, and tlien suddenly turning at a right angle, it 
runs obliquely toward and outward in a straight line to the outer margin, 
between the two small black spots which are here placed on the margin. 
In the opposite direction this pale streak is also prolonged from the for- 
ward end of the black triangular spot, inward and backward and curves 
slightly toward to the inner longitudinal vein, and beyond this, with 
another similar curve, is extended to the inner edge of the wing, it being 
margined on both sides by a black line, that along its hind side being 
commonly more conspicuous. And a short distance back fi'om this line, 
equidistant between tiie inner midvein and the inner vein, may always be 
seen a black dot or short dash, which is the extreme point of a black 
stripe called the teliform stigma, which is common upon the wings of the 
moths of this genus, but in this variety of this species is wholly wanting, 
except this minute vestige of its apex. And also crossing this inner half 
of the wing obliquely at about two-thirds of the distance from the base 
to the hind edge are two other parallel blackish lines, representing the 
post-medial band. The anterior one of these lines is irregularly wavy and 
angular, and turns obliquely forward as it approaches the posterior stigma, 
and appears to pass into the inner hind angle of the square black spot. 
The posterior line, as traced from the inner edge of the wing, curves 
slio'htly backward till it reaches a point a short distance back of the inner 
end of the hind stigma, when it becomes nearly transverse, and then curves 
foward and obliquely outward to the outer edge of the wing, ending in 
the posterior one of the two black spots which are on the outer edge oppo- 
site to the anterior side of the hind stigma. This line, in the middle of 
the wing, is festooned or made up as it were of crescents united at their 
ends, these ends projecting backwards and forming about four acute angu- 
lar points; and sometimes this line is made more distinct by a faint pale 
o-ray line bordering it on its hind side, at least in the concavities of the 
crescents. But both these blackish lines are commonly quite faint and entire- 
ly vanish in many specimens. Beyond this, a broad space on the hind bor- 
der of the wing is darker colored and traversed by a whitish line, which 
is wavy and often broken into a series of small irregular spots, these spots 
sometimes liaving larger black cloud-like spots adjoining them on the fore 
side. Back of the outer end of this line the tip of the wing is occupied by 
a triangular gray spot. The hind edge is faintly sinuated, with a series of 
slender black crescents surmounting the sinuosities. The fringe is con- 
color with the portion of the wing immediately forward of it. The bind 
wings are smoky whitish, with a broad dusky hind border, dusky veins, 
and an obscure dusky crescent near the centre. Their fringe is dull white 
with a dusky band near its middle. On the underside they are clearer 
white, with a broad, dusky hind border and sprinkled with dusky scales 



39 

Ctrt-WORMS. NAME OP THE MOTH. DESTROYER OF TUE CUT-WORMS. 

towards the outer side. The veins are not marked with dusky, except a 
spot or short streak upon each of them, forming- a transverse row forward 
of the hind harder, which row becomes obsolete towards the inner edf>-e 
and towards the outer edge is confluent, forming a dusky band. The cen- 
tral crescent is more distinct than on the upper side, and on the hind edge 
is a row of slender black crescents. The fore wings are dusky, of the 
same shade with the border of the hind pair, becoming slightl}^ paler 
towards their bases. They show an oblique black streak on the outer 
edge between the middle and the tip, and immediately beyond this is a very 
faint band crossing the wing parallel with the hind margin. 

The description now given makes it apparent, I think, that tliis moth is 
not essentially different from the species of Agrotis named nigricans by Lin- 
nasus, which species we have upon this continent with the same varieties 
described by authors as occurring in Europe. In this species the teliform 
stigma is marked by two parallel lines connected by a rounded mark at 
their ends. But in the examples which I bred from the Cut-worms of the 
corn, and all those which I captured that season a mere dot was the only 
remaining vestige of this stigma. Therefore to facilitate future references 
to this particular variety of which I have here treated, it may be well to 
separate it under a distinct name, which I have accordingly done. 

The larger Yellow-headed Cut-worm which came out as this was disap- 
pearing, produced as I expected, the same moth which was described in 
my Third Report, under the name Hadena amputatrix, the Amputating bro- 
cade moth. 

Thus it wag the larvce of these two insects which were so numerous and 
did all the injury to our crops the past season, neither of these being the 
species which Mr. Brace describes as the insect which produces the Cut- 
worm. And it is therefore evident that in difierent years and at different 
localities, it is sometimes one sometimes another of the insects of this 
group which becomes multiplied and injurious to us; whereby it will requii-e 
a series of observations extending through several seasons to obtain a full 
acquaintance with them. 

Before leaving this subject I may advert to one of our most efficient na- 
tural destroyers of these Cut-worms, which correspondents are occasionally 
sending me, for information as to its name, its origin, &c. It is the larva 
of a large black beetle, (Plate 4, fig. 4), having rows of round dots upon 
its back resembling burnished gold, the brilliancy of which dots cause it 
to be frequently noticed as it is wandering about in plowed fields and pas- 
tures in search of food, the beetle as well as its larva subsisting upon these 
Cut-worms. It is the Bold Calosoma, Calosoma calidum as it is named in 
scientific works, and pertains to the order Coleoptera and the family Cara- 

BIDjE. 

Its larva (Plate 4, fig. 5,) is a flattened, black, worm-like creature, 
having six legs inserted upon its breast, and a pair of sharp hook-like jaws 
projecting in front of its head, giving it, in connection with the agility of 
its movements, a very ferocious and formidable appearance. It is curious 
to watch this little creature when it is upon a hunting excursion, in pursuit 



40 

CUT-WORMS. THEin DESTItOYEH'S MODE OF KILMXG TtltM. 

of its prey. It wanders about over the plowed land, until it comes upon a 
spot where it perceives the surface has been newly disturbed. This indi- 
cates to it that a worm has probably crawled down into the ground at that 
spot. It immediately thereupon roots down into this loosened dirt, and 
disappears from view, the motion of the dirt indicating its movements, 
as it pushes itself along. At times it lies perfectly still, to discover if any 
worm is moving in the dirt anywheres near it. Now it is the habit of the 
Cut-worm, the same aa of most other worms, when any other creature ap- 
proaches and disturbs it, to give at short intervals a sudden, spiteful jerk, 
to menace and frighten away the intruder. But now, aware by the brisk 
motion made in the dirt near it, of the proximity of its mortal foe, it 
restrains itself from its wonted habit, and lies as still as though it were 
dead. It is only by some motion in the dirt, or l)y coming abruptly against 
it with its head and feelers, that this destioyer can discover the worm, for 
I have seen it draw the hind part of its body along the side of a worm 
which was lying perfectly still, and crawl away, without being made 
aware of the worm's presence by touching it in this manner. 

One of the most interesting and w(jnderful exhibitions of insect economy 
which the world affords, is this Calosoma larva murdering a Cut-worm. The 
larva it may be is young and less than half the size of the worm, but the lit- 
tle hero never shrinks from the encounter. Upon discovering a worm he is 
instantly on the alert, all vivacity and as if crazy with excitement. The worm 
perhaps holds its head bent down stiffly upon its breast. The larva hereupon 
briskly roots and pushes the worm about and pinches it with its jaws, 
whereby he gets it to throw back its head, whereupon he instantly grasps 
the worm by its throat, sinking his sharp jaws through the skin, and cling- 
ing thereto with the grip and pertinacity of a bull dog. The worm mad- 
dened by the pain, writhes and rolls over and over and thrashes his tor- 
mentor furiously about to break him off from his hold; he coils his body like 
a Boa constrictor tightly around him to pull him away: he bends himself 
into a ring with a small orifice in the centre, and then briskl}' revolving, 
draws him through and through this orifice to tear him off; but every 
expedient of tlie poor worm fails. The larva clings to his grip upon the 
worm's throat, till the latter, exhausted by his violent struggles, gradually 
relaxes his efforts, becomes more and more weak and powerless, and finally 
succumbs to his fate. Having thus killed the woim the larva leisurely pro- 
ceeds to feed upon it, biting two or three holes through the skin in diifer- 
cnt places to suck out its contents. It is occupied three or four hours in 
completing this work. And the larva becomes so gorged hereby that its 
own skin is distended almost to bursting. It then crawls slightly under 
ground, and there lies and sleeps off its surfeit, and then comes out and 
wanders off in search of another meal of the same kind. 

When this larva is small a single Cut-worm suffices it for one or two 
days; but as it approaches maturity it devours one or two worms daily. 



41 

BEE-KILLBR. A NEW INSECT. ITS CLASSIFICATION AND JfAMK. 

13. Nebraska Bee-killer, Trupanea Apivora, new species. (Dipteta. 
AsilidEe.) Plato 4, fig. 1. 

Killing the honey bee in Nebraska; a large slender-bodied two-winged fly, an Inch long. 

Whilst we are occupied in closing this Report to place it in the printcr^g 
hands, July, 1864, a new insect comes under our examination, of such an 
interesting character that we herewith present a fig-ure of it, and the fol- 
lowing account, the principal portion of which we have also communicated 
to the Country Gentleman. 

R. 0. Thompson, Esq., Florist and Nurseryman, in a note dated Nursery 
Hill, Otoe county, Nebraska, June 28th, 1864, says: "I send you to-day 
four insects or animals that are very destructive to the honey bee, killing 
a great number of them, and also of the Rose bug's. What are they ? 
Many wish to know what this Bee-killer is. Is it the male or the female 
that has the three-pronged sting ?" 

The specimens, two of each sex, laid between pledgets of cotton wool in 
a small pasteboard box and forwarded by mail, came to hand in good con- 
dition, admitting of a very satisfactory examination. They are a large 
two- winged i^y, having along and rather slender and tapering body, about art 
inch in length, with small three-jointed antennoe, the last joint being' 
shorter than the first, and giving* out from its end, and not from its side, 
a slender bristle. The ends of its feet are furnished ott the underside with 
two cushion-like soles, and the crown of its head is hollowed out or concave, 
and in this hollow is seen three little glassy dots or eyelets. These charac- 
ters show it to pertain to the order Diptera, and to the g-roup which Lin-- 
nasus a century ago separated as a genus, under the name Asilus, but 
which is now divided into several genera, forming the family Asilidcef, 
On inspecting its wings we see the two veins which end one on each side 
of the tip of the wing are perfect and unbroken, and towards the middle of 
the outer one they arc connected together by a small veinlet or short 
transverse vein. This indicates these flies to pertain to the genus named 
Trupanea by Macquart. 

About a half dozen species inhabiting the United States and pertaining 
to this genus have been described by Wiedemann, Say, and others. This 
Nebraska fly appears to be different from either of those, and 1 am, there- 
fore, led to regard it as a new insect, hitherto unknown to the world. And 
a more appropriate name cannot be given it than that by which it is called 
by Mr. Thompson and his neighbors, the Bee-killer or Trvpanea Apivora. 
The general definition of this species, or its brief essential characters Avill 
be, that it is dull black with the head yellow, tlie fere body butternut brown, 
the hind body on its underside and the legs pale dull yellow, the tliighs 
being black on their foresides, and it is coated over with hairs which are 
gray in the female and grayish yellow in the male, the end of the body in the 
latter sex having a conspicuous silvery white spot. 

In this Asilus group of flies the species are separated frorji each other 
by marks which are often very slight and obscure. It is, therefore, im- 
portant that a detailed description of these Nebraska flies should here be 



42 

SEE-RILt,ER. DESCRtPTtON OP TBE INSECT. 

giveri) that they may not be confounded with any other species which may 
be closely similar to them. 

Tliey measure to the end of the wings 0.85 to one inch, and to the end of 
the body 0.95 to 1.15, the males being rather smaller than the females. The 
head is short and broad, shaped like a plano-convex lens, flat on its hind 
side and convex in front. Its summit or crown is deeply excavated, leav- 
ing a vacant space between the upper part of the eyes, in the middle of 
which excavation are the oceli or eyelets, appearing like three black glassy 
dots placed at the corners of a triangle. The ground color of the head is 
yellow. All the face below the antennae is covered with long hairs form- 
ing a moustache of a light yellow color, with a tuft of short black bristles 
at the mouth, and on each side are whiskers of a yellowish gray color. 
The base of the head has a sort of collar formed of radiating gray hairs, 
and behind the upper part of each eye is a row of black bristles. The eyes 
are large and protuberant, occupying two-thirds of the surface of the head, 
and are finely reticulated or divided into an immense number of minute 
facets. The antennse are inserted at the anterior edge of the excavation 
in the crown of the head. They are small, scarcely reaching to the base 
of the head if turned backward. They are black and composed of three 
joints, the first one longest and cylindric; the second shortest andobconic; 
the third thickest and egg-shaped, its apex ending in a bristle which is 
about equal to the antenna in length, and is sliglitly more slender towards 
its tip, where it becomes a little thickened. The trunk or proboscis is as 
long as the head, its end projecting out from the bristles of the face. It 
appears like a long, tapering tube of a hard crustaceous texture, black and 
shining, blunt at the end, with a fringe of hairs around the orifice. In 
one specimen the tongue protrudes from the orifice in the end of the trunk, 
sharp pointed and like the blade of a lancet in shape, hard, shining and 
black. The thorax or fore body is the broadest part of the insect, and is of 
a short oval form, wath bluntly rounded ends. It is of a taruished yellow- 
ish brown or butternut color, with two faint gray stripes along the middle 
of the back, alternating with three darker brown ones. It is bearded with 
black hairs and posteriorly with long yellowish gray ones, which are inter- 
spersed with black bristles. The abdomen or hind body is long, slender 
and tapering from its base in the male, and is more broad and somewhat 
flattened in the female. It is black above and covered with prostrate hairs, 
which are dull yellow in the male and gray in the female. On the sides 
and beneath the ground color is dull yellow in the male and gray in the 
female, and clothed with gray hairs in both sexes. The two last segments, 
the eighth and ninth, are conspicuously protruded, making two or three 
more segments than are usually visible externally in insects. In the female 
these segments taper to an acute point, and are black and shining. In the 
male they appear like a cylindrical tube with a projecting valve under- 
neath at the base, and are coated over with dull yellow hairs, and on the 
upper side with silvery white ones, pressed to the surface and forming a 
conspicuous oblong spot of this color, which is two-lobed or notched at its 
eads. And in the dead specimens before me three bristle like processes 



43 

8EE-KILtER. LKGS AND WINGS DESCRIBED. DELIOItTS IN THE StJNStttNB. 

over a tenth of an incli in length, of a tawny yeUow eokjr, polished and 
shining-, project from the blunt end of the bod3^ These are termed a three- 
pronged sting in the above letter. But the magnifying glass shows they 
arc abruply cut off at their ends and do not taper to a sharp point capable 
of piercing the human skin. The legs are long and stout and of a pale, 
dull yellowish color. The thighs in the males are chestnut brown, and on 
their anterior sides they are dull black in both sexes, the hind pair being 
entirely black, except a stripe of dull yellowisli along the under side. The 
hind shanks also are frequently black on their anterior sides The legs 
are covered with gray hairs and have several black bristles in rows running* 
lengthwise. In the males the four anterior shanks and feet have the hairs 
yellow, and on the feet the bristles also are of this color. The tvings are 
long and narrow, and in repose are laid flat, one upon the other. They are 
transparent, with a smoky tinge, and are perceptibly darker at their tips. 
Their veins are black, except the parallel ones in the outer border, which 
are dull yellowish brown. The broad parje or panel at the tip of the wings, 
which is technically termed the second sub-marginal cell, rapidly narrows 
as it extends forward into the wing, for two-thirds of its length, the remain- 
ing third being quite narrow, with its opposite sides parallel. Along the 
vein which forms the boundary of this cell on its outer side, is a percepti- 
ble smokiness, which is not seen along the sides of the other veins. This 
vein is slightly bent in the form of a bow two-thirds the length of the cell, 
when it abruptly curves in the opposite direction, and is then straight the 
remainder of its length. A veinlet connects it to the next longitudinal 
vein, thus forming between the anterior portions of these two veins a third 
sub-marginal cell, which is very long and narrow. 

The arrangement of the veins in the wings, forming three submarginal 
cells as above described, induces me to refer this species without hesita- 
tion to Macquart's genus Trupa7iea; although the silvery white spot on the 
tip of the male abdomen would indicate it to pertain to the genus Erax, as 
restricted by the same author. 

The brief note of our correspondent gives us no particular information 
upon the habits of these flies or the manner in which they attack and kill 
the bees. But the members of this Asilus group are all so similar in their 
habits that we are aware what the operations of this species will be. And 
some account of the habits of these insects may be of sufficient interest to 
the reader to be here related. 

These Asilus flies, like some other of our most rapacious insects, parti- 
cularly delight in the hot sunshine. One or two evidences of this may here 
be adduced. 

Flies of this kind are rare in ray vicinity. I suppose I might hunt for 
days without being able to find a living specimen. And I do not recollect to 
have ever seen one of them, hitherto, about my house or yard. Tiiree days 
ago, however, when occupied in preparing this account, I casually spread 
some damp newspapers before my door to dry in the hot sun. " On stepping 
out to gather up these papers I was most agreeably surprised to see 
alighted upon one of them and basking in the sun, what proves to be a 



44 

BEE-KILLEU. ITS FETID ODOR. CRUEL MODE OP KILLING ITS PREY. 

species of Tiupanea wliich I had never met with before, and which is closely 
like though probably distinct from this Nebraska Bee-killer. The genial 
warmth reflected frttm the white surface of the paper lying in the clear sun 
had evidently attracted it to this unusual situation. 

So late as the month of October, ten years ago, upon a clear warm day, 
in a sunny nook upon the south side of a forest, I came upon quite a num- 
ber of the Erax rxifibarhis, flying about and alighting upon the leaves— a 
species I have never met with except in that instance. They were warmed 
into such quickness of motion, and were so extremely vigilant and sl)y of 
my approacli, that with my utmost skill I was able to capture but two in- 
dividuals which were impeded in their movements from being paired to- 
gether. I infer these Nebraska flies to be common and far less wary than 
the species alluded to— else our correspondent would have been unable to 
secure two individuals of each sex to transmit to us. And I suspect these 
specimens were obtained when they were copulated. If so, it is probable 
that the three sting-like bristles which I have described above, are not 
protruded and visible externally, except at such times. 

In flying, these insects make a very loud humming sound, which can 
scarcely be distinguished from that of the bumble-bee; and when involved 
within the fulds of a net, they utter the same piping note of distress as does 
that insect. This very probably contributed to impress our correspondent 
with the thnught that the three bristles which are extruded by the male 
are a formidable three-pronged sting. 

Another fact which I do not see alluded to by any author, is the fetid 
cariou-like odor which some of these Asilus flies exhale. I noticed this 
odor in the Erax rufibarbis which was captured as above related. And in 
these Nebraska specimens, though they have now been dead a fortnight 
and freel}' exposed to the air the latter half of that time, this disgusting 
scent still remains, and so powerful is it that on two occasions nausea has 
been produced when they have happened to be left upon the table beside 
nie. As the newly coptured fly above mentioned is wholly destitute of 
this fetor, it may be that it is only at the period of sexual intercourse that 
it occurs. 

These flies are inhuman murderers. They are the savages of the insect 
world, putting their captivCvS to death with merciless cruelty. Their large 
eyes divided into such a ujultitude of facets, probably give them most acute 
and accurate vision for espying and seizing their pray; and their long stout 
legs, their bearded and bristly head, their whole aspect indicates them to 
be of a predatory and ferocious character. Like the hawk they swoop upon 
their prey, and grasping it securely between their fore feet they violently 
bear it away. They have no teeth and jaws wherewith to bite, gnaw and 
masticate their food, but are furnished instead with an apparatus which 
answers them equally well for nourishing themselves. It is well known 
what maddening pain the lu^-se flies occasion to horses and cattle, in wound- 
ing them and sucking their blood. These Asilus flies possess similar 
organs, but larger and more simple in their structure, more firm, stout and 
powerful. In the horse flies the truiik or proboscis is soft, flexible and sen- 



45 

BEE-KILLER. ITS HABITS AND DESTRUCTIVENESS. 

sitive. Here it is hard and destitute of feeling — a larg-e, tapering-, horn- 
like tube, inclosing a sharp lance or sp(>ar-pointed tongue to dart out from 
its end and cut a wound for it to enter, this end, moreover, being fringed 
and bearded around with stiff bristles to bend backward and thus hold it 
securely in the wound into which it is crowded. The proboscis of the 
horse files is tormenting, but this of the Asikis flies is torturing. That 
presses its soft cushion-like hps to the wound to suck the blood from it ; 
this crowds its hard prickly knob into the wound to pump the juices there- 
from. It is said these Asilus flies sometimes attack cattle and horses, but 
other writers disbelieve this. Should any of our Nebraska friends see one 
of these bee-killers alighting upon and actually wounding horses or cattle, 
we hope they will inform us of the fact, that this mooted point may bo defin- 
itely settled. Certain it is that these flies nourish themselves principally 
upon other insects, attacking all that they are sufficiently large and strong 
to overpower. Even the hard crustaceous shell with which the beetles are 
covered fails to protect them from the butchery of these barbarians. And 
formidably as the bee is equipped f(^r punishing any intruder which ven- 
tures to molest it, it here finds itself overmatched and its sting powerless 
against the horny proboscis of its murderer. These flies appear to be par. 
ticularly prone to attack the bees. Kobineau Desvoidy states that he had 
repeatedly seen the Asilua diadema, a European species somewhat smaller 
than this of Nebraska, flying with a bee in its hold. But it probably does 
not relish these more than it does other insects. We presume it to be 
because it finds them in such abundance, as enables it to make a meal upon 
them most readily, and with the least exertion, that these Nebraska flies 
fall upon the bees and the rose bugs. And so large as they are, a single 
one will require perhaps a hundred bees per day for its nourishment. If 
these flies are common, therefore, they will inevitably occasion great losses 
to the bee keepers in that part of our country. 

No feasible mode of destroying this fly or protecting the bees from it at 
present occurs to me. Indeed such an accurate knowledge of the particu- 
lar habits of this species as we do not at present possess, is necessary, to 
show in what manner it can be most successfully combatted. 

Since the foregoing account was written, Mr. Thompson has favored us 
with another communication, giving some most interesting observations upon 
the habits and destructiveness of this insect, which we here append in his 
own words. He says. My attention was first called to this fly destroying 
the honey bee by a little boy, a son of D. C. Utty, Esq., of this place- 
After sending you the specimens I watched its proceedings and habits with 
much care, and find that, in addition to the honey bee and rose bugs, 
it devours many other kinds of beetles, bugs and flies, some of which are 
as large again as itself. It appears to be in the months of June and July 
that it is abroad upon the wing, destroying the bees. None of them are 
now (August 2d) to be seen. When in pursuit of its prey it makes quite 
rapid dashes, always capturing the bee on the wing. When bnce secured 
by wrapping its legs about it, pressing it tightly to its own body, it imme. 
diately seeks a bush or tall weed, upon which it alights and commences 



46 

p BEK-KILLER. ITS TENACITY OF LIFE. 

devouring its prey by eating (piercing) a hole into the body and in a short 
time entirely consuming it (sucking out the fluids and soft internal viscera) 
and leaving only the hard outer skin or shell of the bee. Upon the ground 
beneath some favorable perch for the fly near the apiar^', hundreds of these 
shells of bees are found accumulated in a single day — whether the work of 
one fly or of several 1 am not able to say. I have just returned from a pro- 
fessional tour through the northern portion of our Territory'-, taking Nur- 
ser}^ orders ; and in many things this business and the apiary are closely 
connected. In no case have I found a hive of bees that has thrown off a 
swarm this season ! The dry weather, bad pasture and other reasons Avere 
assigned as the cause. But many persons^ since they have found this fly 
at his work of destruction, now believe it to be the cause of the non- 
swarming of their bees ; and I am led to the same opinion. I have only 
to add further, that this Bee-killer delights in hot, dry weather, and is very 
invulnerable and tenacious of life. I have observed the honey bee and 
also the hornet sting it repeatedly, but with no other effect than to cause it 
to tighten its hold upon them. Once when I forced the assassin to release 
his prey, he gave me such a wound in the hand as has learned me ever 
since to be cautious how I interfered with him. He will live an hour with 
a pin thrust through his body which has been dipped in the solution of 
cyanuret of Potassium, 



THE HOP ^^PHIS. 



From an Address delivered before the Annual Meeting of the State Agricultural Society- 
Albany, February 8th, 1865. 

The insect which the past season attracted the most notice and did the 
most damage in our State, was the Aphis or Plant-lonse upon the hops. 
Althoug-h the hop has been growing-, both wild and cultivated, in this 
country, from time immemorial, I am not aware that this enemy has ever 
attacked or been observed upon it, until two summers ago, when it sud- 
denly made its appearance in excessive numbers; and in consequence of 
its advent, the two past j'ears have been the most disastrous to the exten- 
sive hop growers in the central section of our State, which they have ever 
experienced. In some yards the hops have not been picked, and in other 
yards a portion of those that have been gathered, it is said, ought never to 
have been dried and put up for market, they are so small and worthless; 
whilst the best that have been grown are of an inferior quality, the bitter 
principle, on which their value depends, being deficient, according to the 
published reports, to the extent of from 15 to 25 per cent. 

The newspapers and agricultural periodicals have abounded with notices 
of this failure of the hop crop. From the extended accounts which some 
of these publications have given, it would appear that there are three dif- 
ferent maladies with which the hop vines have recently become atfected, 
namely, the Aphis or plant-lice, the honey dew, and the black blight. The 
plant-lice are soft pale yellowish-green insects, not so large as the head of 
a pin, which remain stationary upon the under sides of the leaves, crowded 
together and wholly covering the surface. The honey dew appears on the 
upper surface of the leaves, as a shining, clear and transparent fluid, sticky, 
like honey smeared over the surface. The black blight also occurs on the 
upper sides of the leaves and resembles coal dust sifted upon and adhering 
firmly to them, or the leaves look as though they had been held in the 
smoke of a chimney until they had become blackened over with soot. 
This black blight is deemed to be a kind of fungus growing from the leaves, 
analogous to the rust and smut in grain, and it is stated that in some hop 
yards sulphur has been dusted over the leaves to kill or check its growth, 
but without having the slightest effect upon it. 

Which of these maladies is the most pernicious, it would be difficiilt to 
judge from the published accounts, one writer seeming to regard the Aphis 
as the principal evil, whilst another wholly ignores this insect and dwells 
upon the black blight as being the cause of the failure of the crop. And 
it is not a little amusing to observe how very wise the reporters to some 
of the newspapers appear in giving an account of these diseases, and what 
a display of scientific lore they make, when their statements betray to us 



48 

the fact that they have not the first correct idea upon the subject on which 
they are writing. 

The truth is, these three maladies, about one and another of which so 
much has been said, are all one thing — differing merely as cause and effect. 
If there were no lice on hops there would be no honey dew and no black 
blight. I am aware the hop growers will be much surprised at this state- 
ment, and will scarcely credit it, they have been so accustomed to regard 
these things as distinct from and in no wise connected with each other — 
deeming the honey dew to be a fluid which has exuded from the leaves in 
consequence of some disease therein, and the black blight to be, as already 
stated, a kind of fungus growing from the leaves, whilst the plant lice, 
occurring only on the opposite or under side of the leaves, appear to be 
wholly separated from these substances upon their upper surface. But I 
am perfectly assured of the correctness of what I say, and can produce 
specimens which will demonstrate that I am correct. I regret that this 
subject did not occur to my mind last summer, or I would have had such 
specimens for exhibition here at this time. Upon the first opportunity^, I 
will procure and place in the Museum of our Society, specimen of leaves 
showing this honey dew upon them, and others showing the black blight; 
and by the side of these leaves I will place white paste-board cards having 
the same honey dew and the same black blight upon them — thus demon- 
strating that these substances do not exude and grow from the leaves unless 
they also exude and grow from the paste-board cards. 

I will now briefly explain how these two substances come upon the 
leaves. 

Each Aphis has two little horns projecting from the hind part of its back, 
which horns arc termed the honey tubes. From these tubes the fluid called 
honey dew is ejected, in the form of minute drops, like particles of dew, 
which, falling upon the leaves beneath tliem, the upper surface of the leaves 
becomes coated over with this fluid, more or less copiously as the Aphides 
producing it are more or less numerous. And now, th s deposit of honey 
dew being exposed to the action of the atmosphere and alternately moist- 
ened by the dews at night and dried by the sun by day, is gradually decom- 
posed, changing from a clear, shining, transparent fluid, to an opake, black 
substance resembling soot, and it is then the black blight. In this simple 
manner do we account for and explain these phenomena — these three impor- 
tant diseases of the hop, about which so much has been said and such eru- 
dition has been displayed by some of the writers in our newspapers. 

These same phenomena, called honey dew and black blight, are not pecu- 
liar to the hop, but occur on other kinds of vegetation when infested by 
plant-lice; and an abundance of authority will substantiate my statement 
that this honey dew is caused by these insects. But I find no allusion to 
the black blight in any author, and what I state of that is the result of my 
own observations. It is proper, therefore, that 1 here adduce some of the 
evidence which I have, upon this particular point. 

It is over twenty years ago that I first noticed this blackness as being 
occasioned by plant-lice. Among several willow trees by the side of a 
stream near my residence, there was one so thronged with the willow aphis 



49 

that I went several times to that tree to contemplate the spectacle which 
these insects presented. And all throug-h the following' winter, no person 
])assing witiiin sig'ht of that tree could fail of noticing- the blackness of 
its trnidv and limbs, it being- the more remarkable as none of the other 
willow trees around it had any ting'<> of this color. Tlie thouglit ther('n|)nu 
became impressed upon my mind, that it was the plant-lice vvith which this 
tree had been so overrun the preceding- summer, wliicli had in some way 
imparted tliis blackness to its bark. Two or tliree winters afterwards, I 
noticed the same blackened appearance to a pine tree, which tree I knew 
had been thronged with Aphides the summer before. I need nt)t specify 
the several other instances of this phenomena which I have noticed. Seve- 
ral years since, when I was investigating' the Aphis of the apple tree, 1 
discovered that, in addition to the bark of trees, tlie leaves alst) acquired 
tliis sooty appearance, irom these insects: and then, upon g'iving this sub- 
ject a particulai' examination, I became assured that this black substance 
was merely the honey dew in a decomposed state. 

Some wi;iters have remarked that dry weather causes the several kinds 
of plant-lice to increase and become pests to thci difierent species of vege- 
tation wliich they respectively inhabit; and my own observations incline 
)iie to regard this remark as being- correct. During- the dr}' period in June 
Avhich frequently succeeds the spring- rains, I have in particular years 
]ioticed these insects as occurring' in unusual numbers, wliereupon I liave 
ai)pi(.'liended that, liaving- ac(|uired such a start s(j early in tlie seafon, the}' 
would prove to be the most perjiicious insects of the year; but rainy weather 
coming- on after this, they have seemed ther(;upon to decline and have censed 
to attract i'urther attention. Hence I think it true as a general rul(>, that 
dr}' weather favors and wet Aveather retards tlK^ir increase. And at liist 
thoug-ht, this view is further strengthened by the fact that this Aphis upon 
the hops was so excessively numerous the past summer, when we experi- 
enced a drouth of such protracted length and severity. But, on the other 
hand, these insects were similarly Jiumerous the year before, when the 
summer was unusually wet. We are thus assured there is some influence 
more potent than the hygrometric state of the atmosphere, which has 
brought them h)i-th in such hosts ui>on the hops. 

rerha[)S in no other group or faiuil}^ of insects are the difierent species 
so vcM-}^ closely akin to each other as in this of the Aphides. So nearly 
identical are most of them, botli in their appearance and habits, that we 
know them to be distinct species only from the fact that they inhabit dif- 
ierent plants, each one btnng unable to sustain itself upon any other than 
the plant to which it belongs. Being thus intimately related, we should 
confident!}' expect that the same atmospherical or other influence which 
causes one species to suddenly multiply and become extremely numerous, 
would operate upon and similarly afl'cct the other species also. But this 
is by no means the case. As every one will remember, in the summer of 
1861, all our tields of grain suddenly became so thronged with the Grain 
Aphis as to throw the whole country into alarm. Wh_y did not the same 
cause which brought that insect upon us in such a remarkable nuuiner, 
operate also t<) bring this insect upon the hops at that time, instead of 
4 



two years later ? Or, if this insect was not then in our country, when it 
did appear iu such vast nuinbei'S two years ag'o, why was not the same influ- 
ence which occasioned its surprising multiplication then, felt also by the 
Grain Aphis, causing' it to re-appear in our g-rain fields ? The two insects 
being- so intimately related, it is a mystery beyond the reach of human 
compreliension, how some hidden influence comes to operate upon the one, 
causing it to multiply and increase so astonishingly, whilst the other remains 
passive and not in the least affected hj it. 

This insect is not limited to the extensive hop plantations in the central 
parts of this State, but appears to have everywhere overrun the hop vines, 
lioth wild and cultivated. It was abundant the past summer in my own 
}ieighborhood, and specimens were also sent me from St. Lawrence county, 
wiiereby we kn(nv that its range extends to the eastern and northern con- 
flnes of the State, but farther than tliis we do not possess any definite 
information. 

This Aphis appears to be identical witli that which has long been known 
ill Europe as tiie worst enemy of the liop, and which sixt^'-five years ago 
received its scientific name, Aphiti Hmmdi or the Hop Aphis, from the Ger- 
man naturalist Schrank (Fauna Boica, vol. ii, p. 110.) Messrs. Kirbj' and 
Spence, in their introduction to Entomology (American edition, p. 135,) 
speak of the damage inflicted by this insect as follows : "Upon the presence 
or absence of Aphides, the crop of every year depends; so that the hop- 
grower is wholly at the mercy of these insects. They are the barometer 
tliat indicates the rise and fall of his wealth, as of a very important branch 
of the revenue, the diflerence in the amount of the duty on hops being 
often as much as ^6200,000 per annum, more or less, in proportion as 
this fly prevails or the cosatrary." This statement forcibly shows what 
a direct interest our own government has in patronizing these investiga- 
tions in which I am employed — this one little insect, in years when it is 
numerous, taking from the revenue of the British government half a million 
of dollars! 

My own researches upon this insect are obviously too limited as yet, to 
enable me to give such a particular history of its habits and operations, as 
its importance merits. I therefore present tlie following account from the 
London Gardener's Cln-onicle, for the year 1854, page 429: 

" As soon as the Aphides settle upon the hops, they suck the underside 
(if the leaves, and immediately deposit their young, which are viviparous, 
and have the singular faculty of propagating their species within a few 
hours after their birth; and in this manner many generations are produced 
without the intervention of the fully formed Aphis fly; indeed, upon one 
hill of hops, millions of lice are born and die, neither parents nor progeny 
having ever attained the condition of the perfect insect. When the first 
attack of these flies upon the hops is severe, and early in the season, the 
"Towth of the plant is commonly stopped iu the course of three or four 
weeks. If the attack be late, that is about mid-summer or afterwards, the 
vine has then attained so much strength that it struggles on against the 
bliglit, to its disadvantage, and the result is a total failure of the crop at 
least: tor the leaves fall off, and the fruit branches being already formed, 



51 

there is no chance of rccovcr3\ At this time, and in this condition, tlie stench 
from the hop plantation is most offensive. * * * * 

" The proo-ress and usual termination of the Aphis blip^lit nia}^ be thus 
described : The flies, as before remarked, on their first arrival, immediately 
suck the underside of the upper small leaves of the vine, and thus tliey 
there deposit their j-oung, upon the most succulent part of the plant. Tlie 
multiplication of the lice is so rapid, that the leaves become so thickly 
covered as scarcely to allow a pin to be thrust between them. They 
quickly abstract the juices of the vine, so that the leaves assume a sickly^ 
brown hue, and curl up, and the vine itself ceases to grow, and falls from 
the pole, the lice continuing till they perish for want of food ; and thus tiie 
crop is destroyed, and the grower may often consider himself fortunate if 
the plant recovers a due amount of vitality to produce a crop in the follow- 
ing year, for occasionally the hills are killed by the severity of the attack. 
This description, of course, applies only to the most severe and unusual 
blights." 

The Aphides are the most evanescent of all insects. They spring up 
suddenly, in such immense numbers as to threaten the utter destruction of 
the vegetation on which they subsist, and ere long they vanish with ecpial 
suddenness — sometimes coiitinuing but a few weeks, and rarely remaining 
in force longer than through one year. It thus appears, that, so long as 
the atmospherical or other influence which favors their increase, continues 
to operate upon them, they thrive and prosper, and when this influence 
passes away they rapidly decline. The writer in the Gardener's Chronicle, 
cited above, remarks of this Aphis on the hops, " These insects are remark- 
ably susceptible of atmospherical and electrical changes, and on a sudden 
alteration of the weather we have known them perish by myriads in a 
night. This was specially exemplified in the Farnham district, about the 
middle of June, 1846, which suddenly recovered from a most severe attack, 
and afterwards produced the largest crop ever known in that quarter. We 
know, also, several instances in East Kent, which occurred in the same 
year, when the planters sold their growths on the poles at a few shillings 
per acre, and these same plantations so far recovered that many of them 
afterwards produced a crop worth from 30^. to 50Z. per acre." 

The decline and disappearance of these plant lice is greatly expedited by 
other insects which destroy them • and in many instances it is to these de- 
stroyers rather than to any atmospherical change, that the vegetation on 
which they abound becomes so suddenly released from them. No other 
tribe of insects has so many enemies of its own class as the plant lice. The 
different species of Goccinella or lady-bugs which are everywhere so com- 
mon, live exclusively upon the aphides, as do also the larvae of the two- 
winged Syrphus flies and the four-winged Golden-eyed flies. Superadded 
to these destroyers the plant lice also have their internal parasites— ex- 
ceedingly minute worms or maggots residing within their bodies and 
feeding upon till they kill them. Thus, whenever a tree or shrub becomes 
thronged with plant lice, these destroyers gather among and around them, 
in rapidly augmenting numbers, and subsist upon them until they have 
wholly exterminated them. Kirby and Spence (page 187) state that in the 



52 

year 1807 the sea pIiovc at Brighton and all the watering places on the 
south coast of Eng-Jand, was literally covered with lady bugs, to the great 
surprise, and even alarm, of the inhabitants, who were ignorant that their 
little visitors were emigrants from the neighboring hop-gr(Uinds, where 
each had slain his thousands and tens of thousands of the aph's. 

These several kinds of destroyers of the plant lice were everywhere com- 
mon upon the hop vines the past summer. I believe that in every instance 
in which leaves with tlie lice upon them w'ere sent me by correspondents, 
I found one or more of these destroyers also upon the leaves ; and in one 
box that came to me, not one of the lice was remaining, all having been 
devoured by several of these enemies wdiich had happened to be inclosed 
in the box. These destroj^ers having been so common, it is quite probable 
that they have now subdued these lica to such an extent that the coming- 
season the crop will be much less if at all damaged b}' them. 

It is of great importance that we should- have some remedy, whereby, 
when these insects do fall upon the hop vines in such myriads as they have 
done the past two j-ears, we may be able to promptly' destroy them. 

As the lice remain stationary npon the undersides of the leaves and are 
so very tender and delicate that the slightest pressure suffices to crush and 
kill them, Mr. Kirby recommends to take the leaf between the thumb and 
finger, and move the finger so as to gentl}' rub over the under surface of 
the leaf, whereby every aphis upon it will be destroyed. He thinks women 
and children can be employed for a small compensation to do this work, 
taking every leaf in succession between the thumb and finger, and thus 
wholly ridding the vines from these vermin. But we all know it will be an 
immense labor to thus take hold of every leaf upon the vines occupying 
whole acres of ground. Many of the leaves, too, are quite large, being five 
or six inches broad, and the finger is but three inches long. It will there- 
fore require one hand to hold the leaf stead}^, whilst the thumb and finger 
of the other are drawn several times along it, mowing down tlie vermin 
by successive swaths. Moreover, the veins on the underside of these large 
leaves are studded with prickles, whereby I doubt if a dozen leaves can 
thus be rubbed over before the skin of the finger will be cut through to the 
quick. I need not specify other obstacles which occur to my mind, all con- 
curring to convince me that this proposed remedy, of the success of which 
Mr. Kirby is quite sanguine, is wholly impracticable. 

Washing and syringing the plants with strong soap suds has been often 
recommended for destroying the aphis upon them. I have recently been 
experimenting with this remedy, upon the plant lice which so badly infest 
the beautiful verbenas of our Flower Gardens, and I find it to be of but 
partial efficacy. It only kills the young, tender lice ; those which are ma- 
ture are so robust that they are not destroj'ed, even though the infested 
stems and leaves are immersed in a strong solution of soap. 

There is one remedy, and one only, which we know to be efficacious and 
perfectly sure for destroying the different species of plant lice. This is the 
smoke of tobacco. It operates like a charm. It never fails. But to apply 
it, it is necessary to place a box or barrel over the plant, burning the 
tobacco in a cup underneath, until its smoke has filled the inclosed space 



53 



and penctrate-'J all the interstices between the leaves. Hereby the rose 
bushes and other shrubs and plants in our gardens are with ease wholly- 
cleansed Irom these vermin. To render it available for destroying these 
insects upon the hf)ps, probably a piece of canvas ov other large cloth cau 
be thrown over tlieni or some other apparatus devised whereby they cau be 
fumigated for a few moments in the same thorough manner. 



INDEX 



Agrotis nigricans 21 

Americana, Arctia 24 

Amputating Brocade moth 39 

A mpiitatrix, Hadena 39 

Apivora, Trupanea 4 j 

A rctia Americana 24 

" Caja 24 

" Parthenon 26 

Asilus diadema 45 

Beetle, Potato I9 

Bold Calosoiiia 39 

Brocade moth, Amputating 39 

Caja, Arctia 24 

Calidum, Calowma ^ 39 

Calosoma calidum 39 

Carolina, Sphinx 2 

Celeus, Sphinx , 2 

Congregala, Wlicrogader 12 

Corn cut-worm 27 

" grubs 27 

Cut-worms 27 

" striped 35 

" yellow-headed 34 

" their destroyer 39 

Decemlineafa, Dorypjhora 19 

Destroyer of the cut-Avorm 39 

Devastating miller 29 

Devastator, Phalena 29 

Diadema, Asilus '. 45 

Doryphora lO-lineaia 19 

" juncta ; 20 

Erax rufibarbis 44 

Five-spotted Sphinx , , 2 

Garden Tiger moth 24 

Hadena ampiutatrix , 39 

Juncta, Dorypjhora 20 

Kalmice, Sphinx 1 7 

Lilac worm , 1 7 

31icrogader congregala 12 

Moth, Brocade " 39 

" Cut-worm 36 

" Garden Tiger , 24 

" Tobacco worm . , 5 



0\ 

021 489 667 9 

56 INDEX. ^ ^^' ^^^ ^^' "^ 

Page. 

Muskcto Hawk 3 

Nebraska Bee-killer 41 

j^'igricans, Agrotis 27 

Nijrtherii Tobacco worm . 1 

Parasite of Tobacco worm 12 

" " a second . 18 

Parthenos, Arctia 26 

Fhalena, devadator 29 

Pull/gramma 1 Q-Jineafa 20 

Potato-beetle, Ten-lined 19 

" worm 1 

Pteromalus Tabacum 15 

Quiuquemaculata, SphrnJ' 1 

Pose buo-s destroyed by Bee-ki!ler 41 

Eufiharbii<, Erax • 44 

Sphinx Carc)li)ia 2 

" Kalmice 1 " 

" quinqaemaculata 1 

Striped cut-worm 35 

Surface catt(>rpillars 27 

g-rnbs 2T 

Tabacinn, Pteromalus 15 

Ten-lined Potato-beetle 19 

Tiger nioth 24 

Tobacco Pteromalus 15 

Tobaccc-worm, Nortlh/rn 1 

'• Southern 2 

Parasite 12 

" a second parasite 18 

Tomato-worm 1 

TrupcDiea Apivora 41 

Yellow-headed cut-worm 34 

Hop Aphis : 

Black Blight , . 47, 48 

Coccinnella or Lady bug 51 

Honey Dew ^ . /. 47 

Hop Aphis .' 47 

" blight descrilied 51 

" decline? and disa|_)ijearance 51 

" depredations upon hops 50 

" Evanescent 51 

" identical with Aphis Humuli 50 

" internal parasites 51 

" progress and termination 51 

reniedy 52 



MiLl\ 



